INTRODUCTION:

Mungbean is botanically recognized as Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek one of the most important
legume crops in South and Southeast Asia and belongs to the family Fabaceae. It is a nutritious,
fast-growing, warm-season legume. It reaches maturity very quickly under tropical and
subtropical conditions where optimal temperatures are about 28-30°C and always above 15°C
(70–90 days). It can be sown during summer and autumn. It does not require large amounts of
water and is tolerant of drought. The mung bean plant is an annual, erect or semi-erect,
reaching a height of 0.15-1.25 m (FAO, 2012; Lambrides et al., 2006; Mogotsi, 2006) the grains
are rich in protein, minerals, and vitamins. Mungbean is widely grown in Asia, but also in parts
of Africa and Australia. Nowadays, almost 90% of the mungbean production is found in Asia,
where India, China, Pakistan and Thailand are among the most important producers
(Lambrides, Godwin, 2007)

Salinity is one of the most severe environmental stresses and affects crop production.
Generally, salinity problems increase with increasing salt concentration in irrigation water. The
reduction in production mungbean cultivars reach up to 50% under salt stress (Singh, Malik,
Sharma, 1989) Magda and Kramany, (2005) compared growth, yield, yield components and
chemical composition in seeds of four mungbean varieties under three salinity levels and
observed significant variations for all these traits. Recently, Sunil et al., (2012) also observed
that salt stress adversely affected the biometric, morpho-physiological, biochemical and
biophysical characters of mungbean. Salinity tolerance is influenced by many plant, soil, and
environmental factors and their interrelationships.

In this paper, the researchers were able to observe the effects of salinity on seed germination
and explore its influence on seedling growth. The mungbean was the subject or the main
source of this experiment because it doesn’t require several weeks to grow and the researchers
need to see changes or improvement within a week only.
References:

Espin JC, Garcia-Conesa MT, Tomas-Barberan FA. Nutraceuticals: facts and fiction.
Phytochemistry 2007; 68(22–24): 2986–3008. doi: 10.1016/j.phytochem.2007.09.014. PubMed
PMID: 17976666

Lambrides, C.J. and Godwin, I.D. (2007) Mungbean. In: Kole, C., Ed., Genome Mapping and
Molecular Breeding in Plants—Pulses, Sugar and Tuber Crops, Springer, Heidelberg, Germany,
69-90. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-34516-9_4

Mogotsi, K. K., 2006. Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek. In: Brink, M. & Belay, G. (Editors). PROTA 1:
Cereals and pulses/Céréales et légumes secs. [CD-Rom]. PROTA, Wageningen, Netherlands.