Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum graecum L.) is an important medicinal crops cultivated throughout the world. To quantify its salinity tolerance during germination and vegetative growth, a Tunisian cultivated accession of fenugreek was exposed to 200 mM NaCl. Physiological traits such as germination percentage, percent mortality, fresh and dry weights, water status and mineral contents (Na, K and Ca) were measured. Results showed that germination was delayed at higher salinity level and that the high NaCl treatment does not affect the mortality percentage. Salinity caused a reduction in growth parameters such as relative growth rate (RGR), fresh and dry weights of leaves and stems. Whereas, roots growth was not affected by salinity. These changes were associated with a decrease in water content, K+ and Ca2+ concentrations and a highly increased in Na+ contents in all organs. Thus, the K+/Na+ and Ca2+/Na+ ratios decreased with the applied of NaCl 200 mM. Relationship between leaf water content and its Na+ content, suggest that fenugreek developed a sodium inclusion mechanism to maintain its growth and consequently its survival under high salinity conditions (200 mM NaCl). These results suggest that fenugreek is a salt tolerant crop.

The growth and mineral nutrition were investigated in seedlings of four varieties of commercial tomato Marmande, Coeur de Boeuf, Roma and a “cherry”- type tomato variety Cocktail, in nutritive solutions containing 0 or 100 mM NaCl. Salt decreased total dry weight of all varieties but with different degrees. Cocktail was the most tolerant whereas Coeur de Boeuf the most sensitive. Na+ and Cl- uptake and transport increased by the presence of NaCl. Na+ accumulation varied among the varieties as follows: Roma< Coeur de Boeuf

Salinity is a major environmental constraint to crop productivity throughout the arid and semi arid regions of the world. The development of strategies to ameliorate deleterious effects of salt stress on plants has received considerable attention. Salicylic acid (SA) has been shown as an important signal molecule for modulating plant responses to environmental stress. In addition to facilitating the growth of plant, SA has been shown to play a role in mitigating the deleterious effects of some environmental stresses. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of exogenous salicylic acid (0.01 mM) on some physiological parameters in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, cv Marmande) grown under salinity stress (NaCl 100 mM). Dry yield of the plants decreased significantly with exposure to NaCl. Exogenous application of SA (0.01 mM), increased dry weight both in saline and non-saline conditions. In saline conditions, with the applied SA, dry yield increased almost up to the yield obtained from non-saline conditions. Salt stress increased membrane permeability of leaves. Exogenously applied SA decreased the membrane deterioration. NaCl reduced photosynthetic pigments contents. Whereas, the addition of SA induced an increase of these contents. Under salinity stress, the amounts of Na, Cl and Na/K ratio severely increased and the amount of K, Ca and Mg decreased. Addition of SA in the culture medium inhibited Na+ and Cl- accumulation, but stimulated K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ contents of stressed plants. These results suggest that SA could be used as a potential growth regulator to improve plant resistance to salinity stress.