A rapid and effective method for dormancy breakage and germination of King of Bitters (Andrographis paniculata Nees.) seeds

作者：Talei Daryush^*; Valdiani Alireza; Abdullah Mohd Puad; Hassan Siti Aishah

来源：Maydica, 2012, 57(1-4): 98-105.

• Andrographis paniculata
• dormancy breakage
• sandpaper scarification
• seed germination

Andrographis paniculata is a medicinal plant of the Acanthaceae family. The plant is important for its diterpenoids obtained from the mature plants grown normally through the seeds. However, the seed germination is slow and not efficient. Here, we report an effective method for breaking the seed dormancy to improve the germination percentage. Among the different physical and chemical scarification methods the fastest and the highest germination percentage were obtained from the seeds scarified with sandpaper. After three days of the scarification, 72.7% of the seeds germinated and this percentage was further increased to 90.4% after 15 days with a mean germination time (MGT(a15)) of 4 days. Although, the other physical and chemical treatments showed moderate effects on germination (G(a15) ranged from 7% to 64%), but they failed to reduce the MGT(a15). Treating the sandpaper-scarified seeds with the seeds and the seeds coat protein extracts delayed the germination but did not affect the overall germination percentage, indicating the presence of unknown germinating factor(s) which may contribute to the dormancy of the seed. Together, the germination factor(s) and the hard seed coat caused the seed dormancy of A. paniculata which could be overcome by sandpaper scarification.

• 出版日期2012