Effects of Salicylic acid on some yield characteristics of Capsicum 1 annuum L. under Sodium Fluoride Stress 2 3 Shakil Ahmed, a *, Summara Kausar a , Fareeha Jabeen a , Madeeha Ansari a , Shanila Bukhari b , 4 Muhammad Sajid a , M Nauman Ahmad, c Saber Hussain a , Sundas babar a 5 6 7 a Institute of Botany, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan 8 b Department of Botany, Kinnaird College for Women Lahore-Pakistan 9 c Agricultural Chemistry Department, University of Agriculture, Peshawar-Pakistan 10 11 *Corresponding author: 12 Prof. Dr. Shakil Ahmed, Applied Environmental Biology & Environmental Biotechnology 13 Research Lab, Institute of Botany, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan 14 E-mail: shakil.botany@pu.edu.pk 15 ABSTRACT: Fluoride contaminated soil is one of the major concerns for agricultural 16 industry as it has adverse effects on yield of economical crops, and it is high need of time to 17 fulfill the requirements and meet the standards. Therefore, present research was conducted 18 to check the effects of Salicylic acid on some yield characteristics of Capsicum annuum L. 19 under Sodium Fluoride stress. Capsicum annuum L. is an edible crop used for human 20 nutrition. It contains an alkaloid compound called as Capsaicin. Capsaicin has many 21 benefits as it has bacterial growth inhibition effects, anti-carcinogenic, anti-mutagenic, 22 antioxidant, and immunosuppressive characters. Keeping in view the present scenario there 23 is a special need to increase the Capsicum production. Two varieties of Capsicum annuum L. 24 (Magma and Zenia) were studied during the growth season 2018. To create stress condition, 25 different concentrations of sodium fluoride i.e., 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 ppm were 26 given as soil drench twice a week. The gradual accumulation of sodium fluoride created 27 toxic effects on growth of plants. Significant reduction was observed with increased 28 concentration of sodium fluoride in yield. The foliar applications of salicylic acid (100 ppm 29 and 200 ppm) on C. annuum plants grown under sodium fluoride stress reduced the stress 30 effect and increased the yield almost 50-70%. By observing the effects of salicylic acid, the 31 present pot experiment was conducted to conclude that foliar application of salicylic acid 32 promotes the salt tolerance in two varieties of Capsicum annuum L. 33 34 Key Word: Salicylic acid, Yield, Capsicum annuum L., Fluoride stress, Agriculture. 35 36 INTRODUCTION 37 Chili (Capsicum) a crop, which belongs to solanaceae family, is of significant worth depending 38 on the economic point of view. The generic name Capsicum originated from word ‘capsa’ which 39 is a Latin word. ‘Capsa’ meaning box or chest. 1 Genus Capsicum has 30 species. Out of 30 40