Sodium silicate improves salt-stressed tomato growth and ion balance in plant study

Sodium silicate improved growth, photosynthetic pigment content, antioxidant defenses, and ionic balance in tomato plants exposed to salt stress, according to a plant study testing plants under 75 and 150 millimolar sodium chloride concentrations. The researchers identified 2 millimolar sodium silicate as the most effective concentration among those evaluated. Salinity substantially reduced plant growth, pigment content, and essential mineral uptake while increasing malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl radicals, and electrolyte leakage, measurements that together documented increased oxidative stress and impaired cellular stability.

The study investigated whether exogenous silicon supplied as sodium silicate could lessen the physiological and biochemical effects of salt stress in tomato, Solanum lycopersicum L. The research compared responses to the two tested sodium chloride conditions and assessed the effects of sodium silicate at several concentrations. The supplied results do not report the plant developmental stage, treatment duration, sample size, growth setting, or other methodological details, so the full experimental scope and the precision of the estimates cannot be assessed from the available evidence.

Relative to salt-stressed plants that did not receive silicon, sodium silicate—especially at 2 millimolar—significantly improved growth performance and photosynthetic pigment content. It also increased the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and peroxidase. The treatment raised levels of ascorbate and glutathione, compounds the study associated with antioxidant defense. These changes accompanied lower concentrations of malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and hydroxyl radicals, as well as reduced electrolyte leakage. The reported pattern indicates that silicon strengthened antioxidant capacity and cellular redox balance while stabilizing membranes, although the results do not provide numerical effect sizes or statistical uncertainty.

Silicon treatment also altered mineral status by decreasing sodium ion concentration and increasing the absorption of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and silicon. In conjunction with the improvements in growth, photosynthesis-related pigments, and antioxidant activity, these results support the study’s conclusion that sodium silicate alleviated salt-induced impairment through coordinated physiological, biochemical, and ionic regulation. The findings concern plant-level responses to controlled salt exposure and do not establish effects on tomato yield, fruit quality, soils, climates, cultivars, or commercial production systems. The authors proposed exogenous sodium silicate, particularly the 2 millimolar concentration, as a potential sustainable strategy for tomato cultivation under salt-affected conditions, but the reported study does not demonstrate those wider agricultural outcomes.

Subject of Research: Effects of sodium silicate on salinity stress responses in tomato plants

Article Title: Silicon enhances salinity tolerance in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) through physiological, biochemical, and ionic regulation

Article References: Badawy, I., Mohamed, H. I., Fouda, H., Elnosary, M. E., & Sofy, M. R. (2026). Silicon enhances salinity tolerance in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) through physiological, biochemical, and ionic regulation. BMC Plant Biology, 26(1), Article 1559. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-026-09859-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12870-026-09859-y

Keywords: tomato, salinity stress, sodium silicate, silicon, plant growth, photosynthetic pigments, antioxidant enzymes, ionic balance, sodium chloride, plant mineral uptake, enhances, salinity