Effect of physic-chemical treatments on seed germination of Salvia leriifolia Benth.

Salvia leriifolia Benth. (Noruozak) is a perennial plant which belongs to the Lamiaceae family. This herb has a great importance in the sense of pharmaceutical applications. In the nature, seeds of Salvia leriifolia hardly germinate endangering its survival. In this work, in addition of studying the causes of low germination rate, different physic-chemical treatments such as scratching on seed coat, scratch seeds under running water, intact seeds under running water, coatless seeds, treating intact seed with 98% sulphuric acid for 10 and 15 minutes were investigated. Seeds were collected from Abkhandari station in Sabzevar city in 2009. For sterilization, the solution of HgCl2 0.1% w/v was applied for seeds in all of treatments. Also four temperature treatments of 4, 20, 25C° and keeping at 4C° for a week then transferring to 25C° on germination of seeds were considered. There was no seed germination happened in control, mechanical scratching, running water and sulphuric acid treatments. The coatless seeds treatment and incubation at 4C° for a week and then transferring to 25C° has the most effect on seeds germination, with 100% seed germination. According to the results, removing the hard and impermeable seed coat of Salvia leriifolia as a physical prevention and low temperature as a physiological factor were identified as effective method in germination of the mentioned species.