Extreme environmental conditions will consequently become a disturbance on all phases of plant growth. Malaysia is one of the developing countries that face challenges of extreme environmental conditions from climate change such as water availability and soil salinity. In response to global climate change, plants are trying to survive through several adaptation mechanisms. Clitoria ternatea or also known as Butterfly pea flower is a potential plant that can tolerate different environmental parameters. Besides, C. ternatea contains essential phytochemical compounds for pharmaceuticals, textile, medicinal and food industries. C. ternatea is originated from tropical Asia countries and it is widely available in the Asian region. Butterfly pea flower has attractive petal colours due to the presence of its bioactive compounds. C. ternatea is claimed as curing various ailments and has great antioxidant activity due to their bioactive compounds such as anthocyanins, alkaloid, steroid, tannin, reducing sugars and flavonoid. Clitoria ternatea has been evaluated as a potential medicinal plant, such as antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic and prevent from cardiovascular damage. Meanwhile, by varying different environmental parameters, the adaptations of phytochemical in C. ternatea is expressed variously. Hence, this paper reviews the physiological effect of growth conditions on Clitoria ternatea and its effect on the production of beneficial phytoconstituents.

Nowadays, proportions of agriculture land had become saline. Many plants and herbs have evolved series of defences to mitigate against salinity. There were critical appraisal studies on salinity using the butterfly pea, Clitoria ternatea var Pleniflora that analysed their potential role as salt tolerant legume. However, study on the physiological responses of Clitoria ternatea is still lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to introduce and evaluate the growth traits of Clitoria ternatea var Plenifora with regards to the number of branches and leaves, plant’s height, fresh and dry weight of plant parts (stem, leaves and roots) during the exposure to six different doses of NaCl (0, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 mM). In addition, controlled growth environment was watered daily with equal NaCl-supplemented distilled water. The results from this study had revealed that all of the test growth traits: the number of branches and leaves, height of plants, fresh weight of leaves and dry weight of stem, leaves and roots were the highest under 200 mM of NaCl. In conclusion, 200 mM of NaCl can improve the overall growth of Clitoria ternatea var Pleniflora.