Melatonin induces proline, secondary metabolites, sugars and antioxidants activity to regulate oxidative stress and ROS scavenging in salt stressed sword lily

Sword lily is regarded as a useful and commercially demanding cut flower crop; hence, assessing its responses to abiotic stress, particularly salt stress, is vital. Melatonin (MT) exhibits stress tolerance in crop plants and is an emerging stress relieving alternative to chemicals. Nevertheless, the possible process underlying the effects of MT under salt stress has yet to be fully elucidated in plants. Herein, the salt stress (SS) mitigation potential of MT was assessed in a commercially important cut flower, sword lily. Melatonin, expressed as MT1, MT2, MT3, and MT4, was administered at concentrations of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 mM. The results revealed that SS (5 dS m