Physiological changes of American ginseng seeds during cold stratification

Abstract

As an important medicinal plant, American ginseng has high value. However, its deep dormancy makes it difficult to propagate from seeds. Previous studies on American ginseng seeds mostly focused on morphophysiological dormancy: the under-developed embryo in the seeds has physiological dormancy. GA3 was used to accelerate the process of breaking physiological dormancy of American ginseng seeds in this study. Through the observation of seed morphology and the detection of various physiological indexes during cold stratification, the mechanism of American ginseng seeds breaking physiological dormancy was studied. After 100 days cold stratification, the germination of GA3-treated split seeds was 76.67%, which was significantly higher than that of the control group (10.67%). The peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase content of GA3-treated American ginseng seeds decreased significantly, but showed an upward trend during cold stratification. It is speculated that GA3 promotes the release of physiological dormancy by changing the accumulation of reactive oxygen species in American ginseng seeds.