Plants grown starts from seed germination stage and continues with the seedling in soil. To evaluate the role of mucilage on improving of drought tolerance of Lepidium sativum L. in seed germination and early seedling growth a completely randomized experiment was conducted in a factorial arrangement with four replications. Drought stress levels (0, -5, -9, - 14.5, -21 MPa) and seed type (with mucilage, and without mucilage) were considered as first and second factors, respectively. Results indicate that seed germination percentage, speed of germination, shoot and root length as well as seed vigor were significantly reduced (p

Rhelogical properties of mucilage extracted from Garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) seeds as influenced by gum concentration (0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 % w/w), temperature (5, 25 and 40? C), as well as pH (2.5, 4, 7 and 10) were investigated. Non-Newtonian shear thinning flow behavour was observed with the Power law model well describing the rheological behavior of the solutions. Increasing the solution concentrations increased the viscosity and pseudoplasticity while an increase in temperature resulted in a decrease in viscosity and pseudoplasticity. A marked dependence of viscosity on pH was also observed. As pH increased from 2.5 to 7, the viscosity increased whearas it started to decrease at pH 10. To study the structural aspects of the mucilage gum it was characterized through FT-IR with the results indicating that Garden cress seed gum contained carboxylic groups on the backbone of its polymer.

Methyl jasmonate is a phytohormone widely distributed and plays an important role in some physiology activities in plant. Copper is an essential element for plants. On the other hand, excess copper is present in certain regions and environments, and can be potentially toxic to plants causing phytotoxicity by the formation of reactive oxygen species that damage cells. In this study, we examined impact of various concentrations of methyl jasmonate (0, 5, 10, and 20 µM) on reducing of oxidative stress in Garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) under different levels of Cu (50, 100, and 200 µM CuSO4) copper stress.The results showed that copper stress treatment alone increased MDA, H2O2 and antioxidative enzyme activity like catalase (CAT), guaiacol peroxidase (GPX), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and plant survival under copper stress. It is indicating that methyl jasmonate treatment caused decrease in oxidative damge and increase copper tolerance of plants significantly.

Medicinal plants are rich sources of secondary metabolites. Lepidium sativum possess active compounds and secondary metabolites, including polyphenol, anthocyanin, flavonoid compounds, which are of special pharmaceutical and economic importance. Melatonin as bio-stimulator compound has a regulatory role on the amount of secondary metabolites and plant tolerance to environmental stresses. In this study, the effect of exogenous melatonin on secondary metabolites production on Lepidium sativum plants was carried out in a completely randomized design with 5 melatonin treatments (0, 5, 10, 50 and 100 μM) and 3 replications. After applying the treatment, the growth rate and content of the photosynthetic pigments, the leaf water content, as well as the content of flavonoids, anthocyanins and total phenolic compounds were investigated. Seed treatment with melatonin, especially at concentrations of 50 and 100 μM, improved the growth parameters and content of photosynthetic pigments. High levels of melatonin also increased the plant's secondary metabolites, including anthocyanins, carotenoids, and plant phenolic compounds. These effects can confirm the role of melatonin as a growth regulator and its impact on plant growth and resistance.

Lepidium spp. (Brassicaceae) are herbaceous plants grown worldwide and considered as vegetable, phytofood or medicinal plants. The genetic variation and genetic structure of 22 Lepidium (L.) accessions representing 3 species (L. sativum, L. draba and L. latifolium) from Iran were assessed using 14 Start Codon Targeted (SCoT) markers. A high polymorphism (98.4%), polymorphic information content (0.35) and polymorphic bands (4.5) indicated that SCoT markers are reliable for genetic variation analysis in Lepidium spp. Mean values of resolving power (Rp), marker index (MI) and effective multiplex ratio (EMR) were 5.0, 1.6 and 4.4, respectively. The highest percentage of polymorphic loci (92.2%), Nei’s gene diversity (0.35) and Shannon index (0.51) were observed in L. sativum. According to analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), genetic variation within species was higher than between species. The highest similarity was found between L. draba and L. latifolium (r=0.94). A high level of gene flow was estimated in accessions of Lepidium species (Nm=2.65), which is further confirmed by neighbor-joining (NJ) cluster analysis, principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and STRUCTURE analysis, that could reveal a poor separation between Lepidium species. NJ cluster analysis divided the Lepidium accessions into three groups, and the grouping of accessions was generally consistent with their origins. This study is the first to explore and prove SCoT markers suitability in genetic diversity of Lepidium spp. The genetic analysis information provided here would be helpful for breeding programs and germplasm conservation in Lepidium species.

Salicylic acid is an endogenous plant growth regulator. It is involved in various physiological processes of plant growth and development and plays an active role in plant defense responses. In this study, because of the economic, medicinal and dietary importance of lepidium sativum, we studied some effects of salicylic acid with different concentrations (0, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1 mM) on some of the growth factors and biochemistry. Studies showed that shoot and root length increased significantly in plants which were pretreated with salicylic acid (0.01, 0.05, 0.1 mM). In addition, content of H2O2 was increased significantly in (0.05 and 0.01 Mm) of salicylic acid as compared with the control. Treatment with 0.01 mM of salicylic acid increased Mn +2 and Zn +2 absorptions while 0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 Mm of salicylic acid decreased anthocyanin and carotenoid contents in compare with control. Treatment with 0.05 and 0.1 mM of salicylic acid decreased catalase activity and malondialdehyde content as compared with control.

In this research, the effect of different levels (0, 0.3, 0.6 and 1%) of xanthan and Lepidium Sativum gum was evaluated on moisture, specific volume, porosity, crust color and crumb firmness of gluten free cake (rice-corn). These samples were compared with wheat cake. Gums were increased moisture, L* and b*. The highest porosity and the lowest crumb firmness were observed in the sample containing 1 % Lepidium Sativum. Also the sample containing 0.6 and 1 % Lepidium Sativum and 0.6 % xanthan gum had the highest specific volume. Finally, the positive function of Lepidium Sativum gum (especially in 1 %) on technological properties of gluten free cake was more than xanthan gum and this sample was better than wheat flour cake.

Glazing process can improve the baked texture and overall quality of bread. In this study, the effects of traditional glazes (water, oil, cheese powder, xanthan gum) on the physicochemical and sensory parameters of sorghum gluten-free bread were compared with Lepidium sativum seed gum. Specific volume, porosity, water activity, moisture, firmness and sensory parameters of breads were evaluated. Results showed cheese powder had the lowest moisture and vegetable oil treated samples had the lowest water activity. Lepidium sativum seed gum and xanthan gum provided the high effect on specific volume and porosity. Evaluation of crumb firmness implicated water, Lepidium sativum seed gum diminished the bread staling and these treated samples had the lowest firmness. Application of glazing ingredients did not have any significant (P>0.05) effect on odor and taste. Lepidium sativum seed gum as a novel glaze was more effective than xanthan gum and its application was better than the usual glazes to improve the crust and overall quality of gluten-free bread.

Plants pre-treatment with various chemicals has often been used to diminish salinity stress impact on plants. In the present study, we used foliar spray of two antioxidant compounds (β -carotene and gallic acid) before the stress, to study interactive effect of antioxidants and salinity stress in seedlings of Lepidium sativum L. Our results showed growth indices, relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and chlorophyll a/b were negatively affected by 25 mM NaCl. The results obtained in the present study showed the beneficial effects of the pre-treatments of two antioxidants in of Lepidium sativum L. seedling under non salinity stress condition with respect to increasing root dry weight, RWC, photosynthetic pigments and the content of carbohydrate. The results suggested that foliar spray of β -carotene and gallic acid could considerably diminish NaCl-caused stress on Lepidium sativum L. seedlings, probably due to higher accumulation of plant biomass, photosynthetic pigments, RWC and carbohydrate content, as well as significant reduction of H2O2 and malondialdehyde (MDA) content. Collectively, it could be concluded that, the accumulation of osmotic metabolites and the intensification antioxidant systems during β -carotene and gallic acid -mediated pretreatments can diminish the deleterious effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by NaCl stress through preventing the lipid peroxidation and scavenging cytotoxic H2O2. Therefore, usage of antioxidant compounds as a pretreatment under salinity stress may be advantageous for increasing biomass and osmotic adjustment in Lepidium sativum L. seedlings