Improving Germination Rate of Coastal Glehnia by Cold Stratification and Pericarp Removal

Myung-Min Oh,Moon-Sun Yeom,Thi Kim Loan Nguyen,Ju-Sung Cho

doi:10.3390/agronomy11050944

Abstract

The medicinal plant, coastal glehnia (Glehnia littoralis F. Schmidt ex Miq.), belongs to the Apiaceae, which is known to exhibit morpho-physiological seed dormancy (MPD). In this study, we aimed to determine the dormancy type of this plant, along with the conditions for breaking dormancy, and how to increase its germination rate for mass production. Initially, the seeds of coastal glehnia had undeveloped embryos, which gradually developed following cold (5 °C) stratification over eight weeks. The embryo to seed (E:S) ratio increased to 66.7%, confirming that the seeds had the MPD type. Coastal glehnia seeds with pericarp did not show inhibited water uptake, and the germination inhibitory chemicals were not detected. However, removal of the pericarp improved the final germination percentage, germination speed, and T50 of coastal glehnia seeds compared with those of seeds with pericarp at 20 °C, which showed the highest value compared with other temperature treatments. Thus, cold stratification at 5 °C for eight weeks and removing the pericarp of germinating seeds maintained at 20 °C is efficient ways to break dormancy and improve the germination rate for the mass production of coastal glehnia.

Highlights

Introduction(English name: coastal glehnia, Korean name: Gaet-bang-pung) is a perennial herb belonging to the Apiaceae that is distributed all across the coast and sand dunes of the South Korea, with flowering in early summer
Hedysarum scoparium, which is native arid environments, environments, delays water absorption for 6 h in seeds with pericarps compared to seeds delays water absorption for 6 h inthe seeds with of pericarps compared to did seeds periwithout pericarps
We identified the dormancy type of coastal glehnia seeds and how to break this dormancy

Summary

Introduction

(English name: coastal glehnia, Korean name: Gaet-bang-pung) is a perennial herb belonging to the Apiaceae that is distributed all across the coast and sand dunes of the South Korea, with flowering in early summer. The umbel inflorescences of coastal glehnia have oval-shaped fruits that are as dense as the number of flowers. The leaves of coastal glehnia have been consumed as a leafy vegetable and in oriental medicine, it is used with bang-pung, a famous medicinal vegetable used for the treatment of stroke. The root of the coastal glehnia is called Beisha ginseng (buksa-sam) and sea sand ginseng (haesa-sam) in herbal medicine, where it is used as a crude drug. Um et al [2] identified furocoumarin groups such as imperatorin, psoralen, xanthotoxin, and bergapten, in the extracts of the shoots and roots of coastal glehnia, which have anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-HIV, and anti-rheumatic properties

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