eng Oriental Scientific Publishing Company Biomedical and Pharmacology Journal 0974-6242 2017-12-21 10 4 1639 1649 10.13005/bpj/1275 18251 article Divya Kotagiri 1 Viswanatha Chaitanya Kolluru 1 Department of Biotechnology, GITAM Institute of Technology, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, 530045, Andhra Pradesh, India. The present study aimed at determining the morphological and physiological response of five different Coleus species under salinity stress. Salinity is one of the major abiotic stress factor shows negative effect on different agricultural activities. Thus, demands the need of developing salt tolerant plant varieties. Coleus is one of the important medicinal plants with several therapeutic properties, but the information related to physiological and morphological response which helps in determining the level of salt tolerance in Coleus species has not been reported yet. Study carried out to investigate the effect of different salinity concentrations (100, 200 & 300 mM NaCl) on carbohydrate content, plant growth, leaf area and biomass. Salinity stress significantly reduced the plant growth, leaf water potential (LWP) and relative water content (RWC) in all five Coleus species whereas, the content of carbohydrates, water uptake capacity (WUC) and electrolyte leakage (EL) was increased. Among the five different Coleus species considered for the present study, Coleus aromaticus and Coleus amboinicus have shown better tolerance to the salinity stress with respect to their morphology, carbohydrate content, decreased water potentials, increased electrolyte leakage and water uptake capacity. The increased accumulation of carbohydrates with increased salinity suggests that they act either as respiratory substrates or as osmolytes confer salinity stress tolerance. https://biomedpharmajournal.org/vol10no4/effect-of-salinity-stress-on-the-morphology-and-physiology-of-five-different-coleus-species/ Coleus biomass carbohydrates electrical conductivity Salinity stress