Taifi rose extract improves the growth and physiology of cowpea seedling stage under drought stress

Abstract

Drought stress is the most significant environmental stress factor affecting the growth of crops and farming sector in the present era. This study was carried out mainly in the rose water extracted from the essential oil of Taif rose (Rosa damascena “Trigintipetala”), which was explored for drought stress tolerance from industry. The aim of this study was to investigate how Taif rose water (RW) pretreatment affected cowpea (Vigna unguiculata var. California blackeye NO.46) seedlings under drought stress (65% and 35% of filed capacity). The cowpea seeds are immersed in rose water with 15%, 25% and 35% for a couple of hours before being implanted. Drought stress dramatically reduces morphological traits of root and shoot length, fresh and dry biomass and leaf area. However, pretreatment of RW seed dramatically improves cowpea growth conditions, relative water content, photosynthetic rate, and transpiration rate. However, under drought stress, RW pretreated seedlings showed a decreased levels in malondialdehyde (MDA), proline, total soluble proteins and carbohydrates. However, drought stress increases the quality of antioxidant enzyme activities like superoxide dismutase and catalase in pretreated RW cowpea seedlings. This study concludes that pretreating with RW could increase the drought tolerance in cowpea seedlings by stretching their antioxidant defense mechanisms. In addition, this study holds the potential to play a vital role in ensuring food security in the near future, as it provides valuable insights into improving crop resilience and productivity under drought conditions.

Keywords

• Antioxidant
• Malondialdehyde
• Photosynthetic rate
• Relative water content
• Total soluble carbohydrate