The effect of seed priming by ascorbic acid on bioactive compounds of naked Seed pumpkin (Cucurbita pepovar. styriaca) under salinity stress

Seed priming is one of the ways to reduce negative effects of salt which is used for increasing germination percentage and seed resistance increase in salty zones. Ascorbic acid is of the most important vegetative antioxidants playing an important role in cell metabolism reactions at the time of germination, cellular disinfection, and cell protection against oxidative reactions. So, to examine the effect of ascorbic acid on germination percentage, rootlet length, and the extent of activity of peroxidase and catalase activity in naked Seed pumpkin seed under salt conditions, an experiment was conducted in triplet in factorial form and based on complete randomized design in vitro. Three levels of ascorbic acid (0, 500 and 1000 M) and three osmosis potentials produced using chlorine and sodium (0, 60 and 100 M) were composed the second factor levels. Regarding mean data resulted from the experiment, as salt level increased germination indices decreased, but seed priming with ascorbic acid led to the increase of trait performance and the reduction of the respective enzymesʹ activity which is probably caused by the neutralization of free radicals resulted from salt stress.