Abstract: Pretreatment in plants is recognized as a valuable strategy to eliminate the effects of salt stress. The study evaluated the effects of ABA pretreatment on the photosynthetic pigments, proline concentration, and the antioxidative mechanisms of sunflower under 150mmol?L-1 NaCl stress. It was found that the concentrations of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotenoid and total pigments were reduced by 7.8%、3.6%、0.5%、10.9%, respectively. All kinds of pigments concentrations were increased after using ABA pretreatment. Compared within four treatments, the most abundant pigmengts was from the seedlings of B1, while the least pigments was from the seedlings of A1. The concentration of proline was increased by 4.4 times (A1) and 4.28 (B1) times under salt stress, while the proline concentration of B0 treatment was increased by 2.23 times. The result showed that pretreatment with ABA stimulated the accumulation of proline under the control condition (A0). Analysis of the antioxidative enzymes CAT, POD, SOD revealed that ABA pretreatment affected antioxidant enzyme activities, especially POD activity. The most abundant activity was from the seedlings of B1, while the least activity was from the seedlings of A1. Compared with the control, the CAT activity was increased significantly (P<0.05), while the SOD activity was decreased significantly (P<0.05). The results suggested that ABA pretreatment enhanced the proline concentration, regulated the activities of antioxidants, and maintained the photosynthetic capacity of sunflower seedlings under the salt stress.