Physiological Studies on the Interactive Effects of Lead and Antioxidants on Carum carvi Plant

Abstract

A N EXPERIMENT was conducted to assess the responses of Carum carvi to lead stress and using ascorbic acid and α tochopherol as antioxidants. In this experiment, plants were grown in the nutrient medium with different levels of lead (0, 50, 100,200,500 and 1000 mM) in the form of lead nitrate Pb(NO 3 ) 2 .Ascorbic acid or α tochopherol level (each 50 ppm) was used as seed presoaked for 8 h.The interactiveeffects were recorded on plant biomass, biosynthesis of photosynthetic pigments, proline, oil contents and flavonidsin Carum carvi plant. From our present results, itcouldbe concluded thatseed presoaked applications of ascorbic acid orα tocopherol could play a role to alleviate the harmful effect of lead stress on some metabolic and physiological processes of Carum carvi that reflected in, increasing fresh-dry matter of different organs, inducing a significant stimulatory effect of carotenoid contents, increasing oil, proline and flavonoid contents.