EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE, GA3 AND CYTOKININS ON BREAKING SEED DORMANCY OF FERULA ASSA-FOETIDA L

Document Type : Regular Paper

Authors

1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran, I. R. Iran

2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Shahed University, Tehran, I. R. Iran

3 Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Medicinal Plants (ACECR), Karadj, I. R. Iran

Abstract

Ferula assa-foetida L. (Apiaceae) is one of the most important endangered medicinal plants,
which is rare in nature due to poor seed germination. In an effort to improve and promote the cultivation of
this plant, the effects of two temperatures (23°C and 4°C), exogenous GA3 and cytokinins (kinetin and BAP)
were investigated on dormancy breaking and germination of F. assa-foetida L. seeds. Among the treatments,
cold stratification (4°C) significantly stimulated seed breaking dormancy. The highest mean germination
index (2.6 germinated seed per week) was obtained by treatment of seeds with 5 mg/L kinetin at 4°C. But,
under no hormone treatment, the highest final percentage germination (73%) was obtained when the seeds
were soaked in distilled water and then incubated at 4°C. Also, under this condition the germination index
was achieved to 2.5 germinated seeds per week. Treatment of the seeds by GA3 not only could not
significantly enhance the germination index and percentage at 23°C, but also the existence of GA3 caused a
marked decrease in those values at 4°C. This result demonstrated that GA3 was not effective to overcome
dormancy for this species.

Keywords

Iranian Journal of Science
Volume 33, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
January and February 2009
Pages 75-85

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