Climate changes have led to drought stress, which is a threat to the production of agricultural products, including pomegranate, which is one of the important horticultural products of Iran. This research aimed at to evaluate the effects of low water stress on the physiological and biochemical characteristics of pomegranate in a factorial experiment in the form of a completely randomized design with two factors including irrigation level (100, 75, 55 and 35% of field capacity) and five pomegranate cultivars (‘Rabab Niriz’, ‘Malas Momtaz Saveh’, ‘Malas Yusef Khani’, ‘Tabrizi’ and ‘Wonderful’). The results showed that low water stress decreased the relative water content (35% decrease), cell membrane stability (42.9% decrease), chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll, and increased carotenoid (19.5% increase), flavonoid (7.9% increase), total soluble carbohydrate (23.9 percent increase) and total phenol (21.4 percent increase), at the level of 35 percent of the field capacity compared to the control. Among the cultivars, ‘Wonderful’ had the highest relative content of water, chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll, carotenoid, membrane stability and total phenol based on ellagic acid, which has effective roles in activity of the non-enzymatic antioxidant and defense system of this cultivar, in comparison with cultivar ‘Tabrizi’ that showed less tolerance to stress compared with other pomegranate cultivars.
paimard F, Mohammadkhani A, Niazi A, Shahsavar A, Nouri Imamzadei M R. Evaluation of Physiological and Biochemical Responses of Some Iranian Pomegranate Cultivars in Comparison with Introduced ‘Wonderful’ Cultivar Under Low Irrigation Condition. IJHST 2023; 24 (4) :541-564 URL: http://journal-irshs.ir/article-1-633-en.html