Tsombou et al Greener Journal of Agricultural Sciences Vol. 6 (4), pp. 159-166, April 2016. ISSN: 2276-7770 Research Paper Manuscript Number: 032316068 (DOI: http://doi.org/10.15580/GJAS.2016.4.032316068) Pre-treatment of Stored Dry Seeds of Aframomum melegueta in-vitro Tsombou FM1, Anjah GM1*, Antoine Mvondo Ze2 1Dept. of Plant Biology, University of Dschang, P.O. Box 67 Dschang, Cameroon. 2Dept. of Soil Science, University of Dschang, P.O. Box 222, Dschang, Cameroon. Abstract Background: The increase in the value of NTFPs concerns: seeds, fruits, edible vegetable, mushrooms, fish and game. Of these NWFPs, Aframomum species among which is A. melegueta (Jujube), a herbaceous, perennial classified in the family Zingiberaceae, class Monocotyledonae is over harvested in the wild. Methods: This study was conducted with a view to maximize the germination of seeds of Aframomum melegueta and eliminate the obstacle of integumentary inhibition after a month of storage of these seeds. Physical pre-treatments were done using three methods which included the steeping of seeds in cold tap water at 24, 48 and 72 hours respectively, soaking the seeds in boiling water for 5, 10 and 15 minutes, and chemical application by soaking the seeds in sulphuric acid at 20, 40 and 60 minutes respectively before being placed in the germination Petri dishes. The optimal conditions for germination of the seeds were determined which included the speed of germination, germination percentage and seeds latency. The data collected were submitted to the Duncan test at 5% significance threshold. Results: The results indicated that pre-treatment with sulphuric acid diluted to 50% significantly improved the germination of A.melegueta seeds. This pre-treatment resulted in a 100 percent germination of seeds. The latency period was significantly shorter (6 days) obtained against 50 days in the control group. The seed germination rate with this pre-treatment was 2.2 grains/day against 0.3grains/day in the control group. Other pre-treatments such as cold tap water and boiling water had no significant effect on the germination of these seeds. Conclusion: At the end of the experiment, it was observed that chemical pre-treatment on dry seeds of A. melengueta was the best. Key Words: Conservation, Germination, Non Wood Forest Products, Silvilculture, Pre-treatments. Return to Content View [Full Article – PDF] [Full Article – HTML] [Full Article – EPUB] Post-review Rundown View/get involved, click [Post-Review Page] References Ahoton LE, Adgakpa BG, M’poFontiM’po and Akpo LE (2009). Effets des prétraitements des semences sur la germination de Prosopis africana (Caesalpianceae). Tropicultura. 4. Pp. 233-238. Amponsah J, Danso K and Elegba W (2012). Enhancing germination of Aframomum melegueta K. 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