Abstract:
Introduction & Objectives:
This study aimed to improve the primary growth characteristics, physiology and phytochemics of the seed and seedling of milkweed medicinal plant under seawater mixing percentage stress using the extracts of Macroalgae and microalgae of Persian Gulf.
Materials & Methods:
Project trial design as a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with two algal treatments including seaweed Sargassum angustifolium and microalgae Spirulina platensis, each with four concentration levels of 0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5% with three replications under seawater stress.
Results:
Results of two-way ANOVA showed that algal treatments had significant effect on most primary growth and germination parameters at 1 and 5% statistical level. Tukey's test showed that with increasing extract concentration of Sargassum algae and Spirulina, many parameters of germination indices decreased. Sargassum with concentration of 1% and spirulina with 0.5% concentration under 12.5% seawater conditions had high performance on studied parameters. Results of two-way ANOVA of nursery experiment showed that algal treatments had significant effect on most growth and physiochemics parameters of seedlings at 1 and 5% statistical level. The simple effects of Sargassum and Spirulina algae were shown by Tukey's test that the concentration of 0.5 and 1% of sargasum and 0.5 and 1 % of spirulina had the highest values, respectively. Interaction results showed that concentration 1% of Sargassum and Spirulina at 25% of seawater irrigation had high effect on yield indices.
Conclusions:
It can be concluded that aqueous extracts of Sargassum seaweed and Spirulina microalgae as a bioactive compound in salinity tolerance of milkweed seedlings up to 25% seawater can be used at field and executive scales.