RESUMEN
A comparative study of the tolerance of two species of medicinal plants of the genus Nigella (N. damascene L. and N. sativa L.) to salt stress was performed. It is shown that growing of plants in the presence of 70 or 110 mM NaCl suppressed the growth and accumulation of dry weight of leaves and roots in both species studied and that this suppression was more pronounced at the higher NaCl concentration. It is established that the salt stress leads to the accumulation of proline in leaves and to a change in the fatty acids composition of lipids in the vegetative parts of plants. It is noted that N. sativa has a higher salt tolerance (70-100 mM NaCl) than N. damascena. It is found that the removal of NaCI from the culture medium and subsequent cultivation of plants exposed to salt stress in a salt-free medium led to a gradual recovery of both Nigella species studied. N. sativa plants showed a high ability for recovery (regeneration) after a strong salt stress.