Soil salinity and sodicity (alkalinity) are serious land degradation issues worldwide that are predicted to
increase in the future. The objective of the present study is to distinguish the effects of NaCl and Na2CO3
salinity in two concentrations on the growth, lipoxygenase (LOX) activity, membrane integrity, total
lipids, yield parameters and fatty acids (FAs) composition of seeds of sunflower cultivar Sakha 53. Plant
growth, LOX activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) content were reduced by salts stresses. On the contrary,
salinity and alkalinity stress induced stimulatory effects on membrane permeability, leakage of
UV-metabolites from leaves and total lipids of sunflower shoots and roots. Crop yield (plant height, head
diameter, seed index and number of seeds for each head) that is known as a hallmark of plant stress was
decreased by increasing concentrations of NaCl and Na2CO3 in the growth media. Fatty acid methyl esters
(FAME) composition of salt-stressed sunflower seeds varied with different levels of NaCl and Na2CO3.