A pot experiment was conducted at the Faculty of Science (Girls, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt) during the winter season (November 2020) to study the efficiency of ascorbic acid (100 and 200 ppm) in improving some growth parameters, yield and its components as well as some enzymatic activities of barley plants grown under salinity stress (2000, 4000 and 8000 ppm NaCl).
In general, salinity stress resulted in reduced growth parameters (plant height, number of tillers/plant, fresh and dry weight of shoot/plant) associated with a decrease in yield components (weight of spike, length of spike, number of grains/spike and weight of 100 grains) of barley plants, these reductions were gradually increased with increasing the concentration of salinity. Meanwhile, the antioxidant enzymes (peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase) significantly increased under salinity conditions.
Foliar application of ascorbic acid,100 and 200 ppm, on plants grown under normal conditions or grown under salinity levels showed a significant increase of all growth parameters, yield and its components as well as the antioxidant enzymes activity.
It can be concluded that foliar application of ascorbic, especially at 200 ppm was the most effective treatment in amelioration the depressive effect of salinity on some growth parameters, yield characters, and some antioxidant enzymatic activities of barley plants.