Abstract: Hyacinth bean cultivar "No.1Chunbian" was used as the test material. Its seeds were soaked with different concentration of chitosan solution（50，100，125，150，175，200，250 mg/L），and then treated by 6 g/L NaCl solution during seed germination. The effects of different concentrations of chitosan on hyacinth bean seed germination and seedling physiological indices under salt stress were studied. The results showed that under the salt stress，the seed germination potential，seed germination rate，seed germination index and the root length，shoot length，activity of SOD in the seedling had the trend of increase and then decrease with the increase of the concentration of chitosan，and the tested indices reached the maximum value at 150 mg/L chitosan，but MDA content reached the minimum at 150 mg/L chitosan. Therefore，appropriate concentration of chitosan can alleviate salt stress to the lentils and the optimum treatment concentration of chitosan is 150 mg/L.

Key words: hyacinth bean, salt stress, chitosan, seed germination, physiological characteristic