Prior-germination treatments for seeds of Luffa (Luffa cylindrica Roemer)

Abstract

Luffa cylindrica is a climber specie that has been used in popular medicine as purgative and abortive. Nonetheless, improper exploitation of its essence, as it has been done, may endanger the specie. This work aimed at evaluating treatments carried out prior germination on seeds of L. cylincrica. For that, an assay was carried out in the Seed Laboratory-Federal University, located in Fortaleza, Ceara state, from February to March of 2005. A completely randomized design, with four replications of twenty-five seeds each was applied. Treatments were as follows: control samples; immersion of seeds in water for 24, 48, and 72 hours; immersion of seeds in water at 60 and 80º C for ten minutes and then left to cool; immersion of seeds in sulfuric acid (H2SO4) at 98% for 5 and 10 minutes; scarifications of seeds with sandpaper nº80 on the opposite part to the hilum; and scarifications of seeds by cutting the opposite part to the hilum. Seeds germinated on paper mustered with distilled water, being the amount of water three folds the paper’s weight. Seeds were then set to germinate under refrigeration with alternating temperatures 20 to 30ºC and photoperiod of 16-8 hours/light, respectively. The studied variables were: first counting, percentage, index of speed and average time of germination, seedling fresh and dry mater. Gathered the results, it could be concluded that scarifications by sandpaper and cutting on the opposite part to hilum are the treatments that provided better values for all the studied variables.