International Journal of Agriculture and Crop Sciences. Available online at www.ijagcs.com IJACS/2014/7-10/737-741 ISSN 2227-670X ©2014 IJACS Journal

The study of gel production and morphological parameters of Aloe vera plant under salinity. Seyed Mohammad Hosein Al Omrani Nejad, Ali Rezvani Aghdam Department of Agriculture, Khoramshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, khoramshahr, Iran. Corresponding Author email: [email protected] ABSTRACT: This study was conculted to evaluate the salinity effects on the morphological traits of Aloe vera. The expriment was carried out using 4 salinity levels including 0, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 dS/m (named as S1,S2,S3,S4,S5 and S6 respectively), under green hous condition. Determind parameters were gel fresh and dry weights, sukers number and morphological parameters of leaves and root, seperately. Results showed that highes gel frsh weight per plant was obtained under S1condition. Plants under S1, S4 and S5 conditions showed the highest leaf number. The maximum of shoot biomass and gel production were observed in S1 and S2 conditions. Results showed that salinity was led to decrease the gel dry weight. Keywords: Salinity, salt stress, morphological characteristics, gel production, Aloe vera. INTRODUCTION Aloe vera (L.) Burm. f., a perennial plant is a tropical or subtropical plant with turgid lace-shaped green leaves. This plant is a member of the Liliaceae plant family, has been widely cultivated in China and used as a traditional medicine to induce wound healing, and as an anti-cancer and anti-viral agent (findings et al., 2007) . It is used in pharmaceuticals, folk medicine, healthcare, cosmetic products and food products (Jin et al., 2007) . Todays A vera gel has been extensively utilized as function food in preparing food health drinks and beverages (Kaithwas et al., 2011) . Plant is a rosette around a small portion of stem no greater than 5cm. The leaves are simple, triangular, succu- lent, thick, with narrow lanceolate mucro tip, 30–60cm long, and 5–12cm wide at the base and 0.8–3cm thick. The margins of the leaves have sharp triangular teeth about 2mm long. The main root is 4– 10cm long and 4–5cm in diameter, the rhizosphere is concentrated at a depth of 15–20cm. Flowers 2.5–3cm long, yellow, grouped in clusters on a single erect stem about 1m long. Reproduction is primarily by asexual plantlets. Harvesting can be done 4–6 times per year. A vera, a CAM plant; CO2 absorbs at night exclusively regardless of the water status of the plant. A vera, an important industrial, is cultivated in order to gel value which proved pharmacological and medicinal properties. Different factors affect morphological characteristics and gel of A vera. The effect of different irrigation rates on growth and water use efficiency (WUE) for the production of leaves biomass and gel, showed that low water availability produced less new leaves and plantlets per plant (Silva et al., 2010) . The low soil water potential reduced leaf weight, plant growth rate, and leaf number(Rodríguez-García et al., 2007) . In an experiment the effects of various exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) levels showed that number of suckers, leaf numbers and leaf biomass increased significantly at 15 and 30 ESP as compared to control and 45 ESP (Rahi et al., 2013) . Leaf thickness these plants increased while moisture increased (Paez et al., 2000) . According to these subjects, physical properties of the soil, climatic conditions and salinity of irrigation water also can affect the quantity of yield. MATERIAL AND METHODS Experimental details This study was carried out in green house of Agro Industry Shahid Beheshti company, Dezfou, Iran during 2012. 20 Cm diameter pots were filled with soil according tabel 1 and seeds were planted. Salinity treatments were imposed 4 months after planting. Plant were irrigated with saline water prepared using NaCl. Salinity treatments were including Plants were planted in May 2012; salinity treatments were done in October 2012. Treatments were included 0, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 dS/m(named as S1,S2,S3,S4,S5 and S6 vespectively), in 3 replications. This experiment was done CDR experiment with 3 replications that each replication had 4 plant.

Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 7 (10), 737-741, 2014

Table 1. Characteristics of Elements and Chemical analysis of the soil regions K(Av.) Mg/kg 100

P(Av.) Ppm 5

O.C % 0.214

E.C Ms/cm 1.414

Ph 7.82

Class Sandy lome

Soil and water analysis The soil texturein profile is Sandy loam and other properties of soil and water of region were measured after the samples of soil and water were sent to the laboratory (Tabl 1 and Table 2). Statistical analysis Experimental design used with 3 replications that each replications had 4 plant and 6 levels of water salinity as treatments. Data were statistically analyzed, using the SAS 9.2 software package, by one-way ANOVA. Significant differences between two means were determined by Duncan’s test. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION None of treatments do not affect leaf dry weight, leaf fresh weight, gel fresh weight and roots length

Tabel 2. Elements and Chemical analysis of water regions Mg2+

Ca2+

32.4

42

K+ 2.42

Na meq/l 46.92

Cl meq/l 195.25

So4 12.48

No3 % 0.0725

Hco3 279

S.A.R % 1.316

T.D.S % 460.8

E.C Ms/cm 0.72

Ph 6.55

significantly (Tabel 3 and Fig.5,6,8,9) but others decreased with increasing salinity. Table 3. Analysis of varians of measurement factors aloe vera Mean Square Source

DF

Leaf width

Leaf length

Leaf diameter

Leaf number

Treat

5

9.44

1619.73

1.85

0.85

Leaf fresh weight 65.47

0.56

Gel fresh weight 4.24

Error

12

3.18

381.77

0.68

0.27

51.98

0.64

16.05

2

R

-

0.55

0.63

0.53

0.56

0.34

0.26

C.V

-

7.55

6.09

9.26

6.36

9.42

25.85

Leaf dry weight

5284.05

Root fresh weight 318.23

Root dry weight 33.91

6551.23

52.86

8.08

0.71

0.25

0.71

0.63

59.29

24.05

15.38

18.11

Gel dry weight

Suckers number

Root length

0.01

1.68

0.00

0.27

0.09

0.56

8.73

11.97

Sizes of leaf Sizes of leaf included length, width and diameter. Results showed that increasing salinity levels increased length of leaves nearly and decreased width and diameter of leaves significantly. The plants growing in the most salinity level (S6), resulted in the least of leaf width and the largest leaf, but in control conditions (S1) showed reversed results (Fig 1,2,3). An increase in leaf thickness of aloe plants with moisture and a corresponding increase in gel production have been reported (Paez et al., 2000) . Leaf number Results this experiment showed that although low salinity decreased number of leaves significantly, other results did not affect number of leaves significantly (Fig.4). Silva et al (2010) reported that low water potential of soil was resulted in reduction leaf number significantly (Silva et al., 2010). Leaf numbers increased significantly at 15 and 30 ESP as compared to control and 45 ESP (Rahi et al., 2013) . Leaf fresh weight and Leaf dry weight Although there is not difference significantly, but the most biomass of leaf was recorded in S2. A high water salinity may be associated with a low growth and yield (Clavel et al., 2005) and (Wu et al., 2008) and (Zhao et al., 2006). Some reaserchers reported that dry matter percentage increased in two Aloe vera cultivars irrigated with 60% seawater, beacause A. vera known as a xerophil can also continue to growand reproduce in such stressed environments owingto characteristic ‘adaptive physiologies’ (Jin et al., 2007). .

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Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 7 (10), 737-741, 2014

Sukers number Reults show that a significant variation in Sukers number per plant(fig. 10). Suckers planted of A. vera at 15–30 ESP levels not only survived well, but the number of suckers, increased significantly from the control plants (Rahi et al., 2013) . Root fresh weight and Root dry weight These factors changed significantly with levels of salinity (Fig. 11,12). Root development and characteristics of the root system depend on the species, however this can be altered by environmental conditions, including soil physical conditions (Acevedo et al., 1979) . Under normal conditions, roots receive the oxygen needed for respiration from the soil. However, when the soil has some salt with water, gas exchange is reduced to only the most superficial portion of the soil, leading to a situation of root anoxia. The available oxygen is quickly consumed by the microbial flora of the soil, stopping the absorption and transport of water and salts into the root (Richards, 1983) . The high Na+ adsorption on clay surface attracts more water from soil solution to satisfy their swelling properties; as a result, water deficiency occurs around the root system of plants (Rahi et al., 2013) . Gel fresh weight and Gel dry weight Gel fresh weight did not affect salinity significantly but gel dry weight showed significant difference. Plants grown in S1 and S5 have the most and less dry weight respectively (Fig 7,8). Aloe Vera is considered as a constitutive CAM species (Silva et al., 2010). Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is considered to be an adaptive mechanism stress conditions. The net outcome of the functioning of CAM is that carbon dioxide is fixed with significant water saving relative (Cela et al., 2009). a

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Figure 1. Leaf width

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Figure 8. Gel fresh weight

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Figure 5. Leaf dry weight

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Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 7 (10), 737-741, 2014

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Salinity leveles Figure 9. Roots length

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Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 7 (10), 737-741, 2014

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Figur 12. Roots fresh weight

Figure 11. Roots dry weight

CONCLUSION High negative tissue osmotic potential, indicative of high solute concentrations (Martin et al., 2004) . The low water potential of soil reduces fresh leaf yield, plant growth rate, and the leaves production (RodríguezGarcía et al., 2007) . Our results confirm that high water salinity may be associated low leaf biomass. The results showed that Aloe vera can be tolerated salinity water and zones and produce high yield of leaf biomass and gel production in stress conditions. A.vera may synthesize greater CO2 during night at high pH in salt stressed environment compared to neutral pH soils through the Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase mechanism (Rahi et al., 2013) . It is feasible that osmotic adjustment, in lower levels of water salinity, can increase the resistance of these plants to water salinity stress. REFERENCES Acevedo E, FERERES E, HSIAO2 TC, HENDERSON DW. 1979. Diurnal Growth Trends, Water Potential, and Osmotic Adjustment of Maize and Sorghum Leaves in the Field. Plant Physiol 64, 476-480. Cela J, Arrom L, Munné-Bosch S. 2009. Diurnal changes in photosystem II photochemistry, photoprotective compounds and stress-related phytohormones in the CAM plant, Aptenia cordifolia. Plant Science 177, 404-410. Clavel D, Drame NK, Roy-Macauley H, Braconnier S, Laffray D.2005. Analysis of early responses to drought associated with field drought adaptation in four Sahelian groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) cultivars. Environmental and Experimental Botany 54, 219-230. findings, Miller, a.o.s.i.t.d.o.A.b., and, i.w.s.w.i.a.b.s.a.i.t.d., the development of new and safe therapeuticChun-hui L, Chang-hai W, Zhiliang X, Yi W. 2007. Isolation, chemical characterization and antioxidant activities of two polysaccharides from the gel and the skin of Aloe barbadensis Miller irrigated with sea water. Process Biochemistry 42, 961-970. Jin ZM, Wang CH, Liu ZP, Gong WJ. 2007. Physiological and ecological characters studies on Aloe vera under soil salinity and seawater irrigation. Process Biochemistry 42, 710-714. Kaithwas G, Dubey K, Pillai KK.2011. Effect of aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller) gel on doxorubicin-induced myocardial oxidative stress and calcium overload in albino rats. Indian journal of experimental biology 49, 260-268. Martin CE, Lin TC, Lin KC, Hsu CC, Chiou WL.2004. Causes and consequences of high osmotic potentials in epiphytic higher plants. Journal of Plant Physiology 161, 1119-1124. Paez A, Michael Gebre G, Gonzalez ME, Tschaplinski TJ.2000. Growth, soluble carbohydrates, and aloin concentration of Aloe vera plants exposed to three irradiance levels. Environmental and Experimental Botany 44, 133-139. Rahi TS, Singh K, Singh B. 2013. Screening of sodicity tolerance in Aloe vera: An industrial crop for utilization of sodic lands. Industrial Crops and Products 44, 528-533. Richards D.1983. The Grape Root System. Horticultural Reviews. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp. 127-168. Rodríguez-García R, Rodríguez DJd, Gil-Marín JA, Angulo-Sánchez JL, Lira-Saldivar RH. 2007. Growth, stomatal resistance, and transpiration of Aloe vera under different soil water potentials. Industrial Crops and Products 25, 123-128. Silva H, Sagardia S, Seguel O, Torres C, Tapia C, Franck N, Cardemil L. 2010. Effect of water availability on growth and water use efficiency for biomass and gel production in Aloe Vera (Aloe barbadensis M.). Industrial Crops and Products 31, 20-27. Wu F, Bao W, Li F, Wu N.2008. Effects of drought stress and N supply on the growth, biomass partitioning and water-use efficiency of Sophora davidii seedlings. Environmental and Experimental Botany 63, 248-255. Zhao F, Gao R, Shen Y, Su X, Zhang B.2006. Foliar Carbon Isotope Composition (δ 13C) and Water Use Efficiency of Different Populus deltoids Clones Under Water Stress. Front. Forest. China 1, 89-94.

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