Table 2.

Effect of leaf removal on leaf area index (LAI) and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and malondialdehyde (MDA)

Treatment	LAI	SOD (U g−1 FW min− 1)		POD (U g− 1 FW min− 1)		MDA (μmol g− 1 FW)
	0 d	3 d	7 d	3 d	7 d	3 d	7 d
S0	6.23 ± 0.09 a	494.8 ± 3.6 a	473.4 ± 3.9 a	86.4 ± 0.2 a	74.9 ± 1.1 a	15.4 ± 0.1 c	24.3 ± 0.7 c
S2	5.87 ± 0.09 b	486.4 ± 1.4 b	461.0 ± 4.5 b	84.9 ± 0.5 b	72.9 ± 0.2 b	16.0 ± 0.2 b	26.0 ± 0.2 b
S4	5.02 ± 0.08 c	478.3 ± 2.3 c	446.7 ± 4.9 c	82.6 ± 0.6 c	70.6 ± 0.2 c	16.3 ± 0.2 a	27.5 ± 0.9 a

Note: Data are means ± SE (n = 3). Different letters within a column mean significant differences at 5%. 0 d, 3 d and 7 d represent the day of defoliation, three and seven days after defoliation, respectively