Water deficit is one of the most important abiotic stresses that can significantly decrease crop production. Accordingly, various strategies have been proposed to alleviate negative effects of stress and to improve plant tolerance to water deficit. Several studies have shown the positive effects of the exogenous application of salicylic acid (SA) and Spermine (SPM) on the plant growth and stress tolerance and also on the production of secondary products. Therefore, this investigation was carried out in the form of two separate field and germination experiments. In the field study, a two-year experiment was conducted during growing seasons of 2016 to 2018 to investigate the effects of three irrigation regimes (irrigation after 20, 40 and 60% soil water depletion) and six SA and SPM foliar application (no spray,75 mg L -1 SA, 150 mg L -1 SA, 70 mg L -1 SPM, 75 mg L -1 SA+70 mg L -1 SPM and 150 mg L -1 SA+70 mg L -1 SPM) on the physiological, biochemical and morphological characteristics, phenological stages, biomass and grain production and the contents of essential oil and caffeic acid derivatives in conflower plants. The treatments in field experiment were arranged as split-plot laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications, in which irrigation regimes were accommodated in main plots and spray treatments in sub plots. In the second experiment a germination text was carried out on the seeds obtained from field experiment that had evaluated the effects of SA and SPM application on Echinacea plants under three irrigation regimes. The treatments in the germination text were arranged as factorial in a completely randomized experiment with three replications. In the field experiment, water deficit decreased morphological parameters such as plant height, tiller number per plant, leaf area index as well as pheonological stages, membrane stability index, leaf relative water content, chlorophyll content, plant biomass, 1000 grain weight and grain yield, while increased the activities of antioxidant enzymes including catalase, peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase and superoxide dismutase, the contents of carotenoids, malondialdehyde, proline, flavonoids, phenols, the percentage and yield of leaf and flower essential oil, harvest index and also the length, diameter, volume and weight of roots. At 40 and 60% soil water depletion compared to 20% water depletion the reductions were 29 and 49% in shoot dry weight and 20 to 26% in grain yield. The effects of water deficit on caffeic acid derivatives (cichoric acid, echinacoside, chlorogenic acid, caftaric acid and cynarin) in roots, leaves and flowers were depended on water level, caffeic acid compound and the plant organ. Foliar application of SA and SPM improved the growth parameters, plant biomass, grain yield and the contents of caffeic acid derivatives in roots, leaves and flowers. SA and SPM application increased flavonoids content but decreased phenols content in leaves. Due to application of 75 and 150 mg L -1 SA and 75 mg L -1 SPM there appeared the increases of 30, 43 and 13% in shoot dry weight and 25, 49 and 12% in grain yield. Maximum increases in growth parameters, yield and the contents of caffeic acid derivatives in roots, leaves and flowers were achieved by the combined application of high concentration of SA with SPM. Water deficit increased while SA and SPM application decreased the content of essential oil in leaves and flowers. Among tested enzymes, CAT showed the highest increase in response to water deficit, while SOD was the most responsive enzyme to SA and SPM application. Water stress, imposed on maternal plants in the field experiment, decreased the percentage and rate of germination, shoot, root and seedling length and dry weight, germination energy, seed vigor index and allometric coefficient of their germinated seeds. However, foliar application of SA and SPM had positive effects on seed germination parameters. Based on the results from this experiment, foliar application of SA and SPM improved growth charactristics, biomas and grain yield, the contents of essential oil and caffeic acid derivatives and also their seed germination of conflower plants under all three irrigation regimes and the effects were greater by SA than by SPM application. However, maximum benefits were taken from the combined application of high concentration of SA(SA 150 mg L -1 + SPM 75 mg L -1 ). Key Words Purple coneflower, water deficit, salicylic acid, spermine, essential oil, caffeic acid derivatives.