Effect of salicylic acid on growth and yield under abiotic stress: An overview

Abstract

Biotic and abiotic stresses are the major constraint to limit the production of crops in agriculture. Biotic stress includes attack of insect, pest, bacteria, virus and fungus while extreme and low temperature, drought, flood, salinity and heavy metal stress are the major cause of abiotic stress. The reduction in the performance of plant growth was started from the negative effect of chlorophyll synthesis or degradation under wide range of environmental stress. The generation of harmful free radicles or reactive oxygen species (ROS) like O2, H2O2 and OH. Salicylic acid (SA) improves plant growth and development by improving rate of photosynthesis by protecting the damage of chloroplast, protein and DNA against the wide range of environmental stress including both biotic and abiotic stress. Application of SA also accelerate the production of osmolyte like proline and antioxidant enzymes like CAT, POD, SOD that help to scavenge free radicles safely from the cell.