Biological Response of Lallemantia iberica to Brassinolide Treatment under Different Watering Conditions

Lallemantia iberica (L. iberica) is an important dry season medicinal plant. Drought, an important abiotic stress, adversely affects the plant’s metabolism, which can be alleviated by plant growth regulators like brassinolides. A two-year field experiment was conducted in 2017–2018 to determine the effects of three different irrigation regimes and four brassinolide concentrations on the L. iberica biochemical properties. A split-plot based on a completely randomized block design in three replicates was used as an experimental design with the following irrigation regimes: full watering, watering until flowering and watering until branching. These were the main plots, and 0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5 μM brassinolide concentrations were applied as the subplots. The results showed that many antioxidant enzymes and some biochemical parameters were affected by brassinolide treatment. Furthermore, the highest membrane stability and grain yield were produced in full watering treatment in the second year, and these treatments were not affected by brassinolide application. Several concentrations of brassinolide differently affected the studied treatments, and our study suggests that the amelioration of the effects of the drought stress on L. iberica could possibly be achieved through brassinolide-induced elevation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging defense systems. There is a need for complementary research to prove the effectiveness of foliar application of this growth regulator to improve the growth and yield of L. iberica under water shortage conditions.