Effect of ethanol and methanol foliar application on biochemical indices of Digitalis purpurea L.

In order to investigate the effect of foliar application of different levels of ethanol and methanol on the biochemical characteristics of Digitalis purpurea L., an experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design with three replications at the University of Zanjan research greenhouse. The treatments consisted of two levels of ethanol (5 and 10%) and methanol (5 and 10%), along with a control treatment (distilled water). The results showed that the maximum amount of total chlorophyll (1.78 mg/g), total carotenoid (0.10 mg/g), total phenol (15.35 mg/g), total flavonoid (58. 2 mg/g) and antioxidant activity (43.76%) were obtained under a 10% methanol treatment. The highest amounts of proline (4.47 mg), soluble sugar (76.20 mg/g), relative water content (76.02%) and leaf nitrogen (1.61%) were observed under a 10% ethanol treatment. The ion leakage index (15.21%) with foliar application of 10% ethanol and catalase enzyme (1.66 mg/g protein) and peroxidase enzyme (0.34 mg/g protein) activity showed a decrease with foliar application of 10% methanol. According to the results, the application of different levels of hydroalcohols improved the biochemical properties of Digitalis purpurea L.