Jurnal Biodjati 7(1):119–131, May 2022 http://journal.uinsgd.ac.id/index.php/biodjati e-ISSN : 2541-4208 p-ISSN : 2548-1606 Efect of Alkaline and Drought Stress on Growth and SOD Content in Basil Plant (Ocimum americanum) Anindita Della Rosa Riyadi 1 , Dwi Umi Siswanti 2* INTRODUCTION The basil plant (O. americanum) is a fragrant beverage plant and an essential tropi- cal herbaceous plant with a short (annual) life span. The distribution of the basil plant covers the region of Asia, Africa, as well as Central and South America. Basil is also cultivated commercially in the continents of Southern Europe, Egypt, and California. In Indonesia, basil plants are commonly found and cultivat- ed by the people of Java, Bali, and Sulawesi (Maghfoer et al., 2019). Basil plants have benefts as antiox- idants because they contain phenolic com- pounds, phenolic acids, and favonoids. The essential oils found in this plant are generally in the form of camphor, citral, eugenol, linal- yl acetate, and methyl chavicol (Çakmaçi & Milton 2019). Plants have a certain response to envi- ronmental factors that afect their survival. Soil is one example of an environmental fac- tor that has an important role in the survival of plants which can act as a planting medi- um that provides various kinds of nutrients, minerals, and water that are useful for plant survival. Each type of soil has a certain pH Citation Riyadi, A. D. R. & Siswanti, D. U. (2022). Efect of Alkaline and Drought Stress on Growth and SOD Content in Basil Plant (Ocimum americanum). Jurnal Biodjati, 7(1), 119–131. DOI: 10.15575/biodjati.v7i1.16680 *Corresponding author Abstract. Basil plant (Ocimum americanum) is a fragrant annual plant widely cultivated by the people in Indonesia because it is use- ful and commercial. Previous research on salinity and drought stress afect basil growth and development, cell turgor pressure, and the anatomical structure of the plant. However, research on the efect of alkalinity and drought stress in basil plants has not been carried out. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the efect of vari- ations in alkaline and drought stress on the growth and superoxide dismutase (SOD) content of basil plants. Alkalinity stress was carried out by variations of dolomite (D) doses, namely D1, D2, D3, and D4 (0 grams/pot, 100 grams/pot, 150 grams/pot, and 200 grams/pot) and variations of drought stress, namely A1, A2, A3, and A4 (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of feld capacity). Parameters measured were plant height, leaf length and width, number of leaves, fresh and dry weight, SOD content, and environmental parameters. The growth of the basil plant (O. americanum) decreased after being given drought stress at the feld capacity level 25%, while the SOD content produced was infuenced by the treatment that given and increased by 1.02% at the highest level of alkalinity and drought stress. Keywords: dolomite, drought, stress, Ocimum americanum, superox- ide dismutase 1,2 Faculty of Biology, Universitas Gad- jah Mada, Bulaksumur, Caturtunggal, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 55281 e-mail: 1 anindita@mail.ugm.ac.id * 2 dwiumi@ugm.ac.id Received: January 21, 2022 Revise from: January 22, 2022 Accepted: April 17, 2022 Copyright © 2022 Jurnal Biodjati This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)