The present study was carried out to evaluate beneficial effect of low level of exogenous salicylic acid (SA) treatment on different response of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L) cultivars, under biotic stress effects seedling stage. In this frame, seeds of chickpea cultivars (ILC 3279) were treated with a range of salicylic acid concentrations (0.05 and 0.5 mM) and subjects to Fusarium oxysporium f. sp. ciceris for eight weeks. Water plants were maintained as control. The percentage of seedling was reduced, respectively at 23% in no treated seeds. By contrast, at the application of both SA concentrations, a maximum was respectively about 50% for seedling. A relationship was noted between the levels of this compound and developed plants. Polyphenol, flavonoid and tannins compounds were determined by spectrophotometric methods. Variations in level of polyphenol as well as flavonoid rate with SA application during chickpea seedling were observed. For the individual polyphenol, a separation assay was used as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-UWD) technical. The presence of various peaks level in polyphenol for control and treated plants were noted. These results suggest that exogenous SA application could be responsible for the enhanced growth in chickpea. It has a protective role against F. oxysporium by altering fungi invasion by diminished tannins and increasing production of flavonoids implicated in resistance to antifungal compounds and reinforces the use of this molecule as compounds with benefice properties for plants and human health.

Keywords: Chickpea, salicylic acid, Fusarium, polyphenol, flavonoid, tannins.