Effect of exogenous hormones and chilling on dormancy breaking of seeds of Asafoetida (Ferula assafoetida L.).

Asafoetida (Ferula assafoetida L.) is a medicinal plant with a problematic seed germination. Seeds of this plant have a long dormancy. The present research was carried out to investigate whether exogenous application of the hormones Gibberellic Acid (GA3), N6-furfurylaminopurine (kinetin) and 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), alone or in combinations and chilling (for 0 or 28 days) could be used to alleviate the problem of dormancy. Germination was increased from 53.3% in a medium free of any hormones to 74.4% in a medium supplemented with 0.25 mg L-1 BAP. This was the only single hormone treatment giving a statistically significant increase in germination. Chilling increased germination from 37.5% (0 days of chilling) to 82.9% (28 days of chilling). Combining exogenous application of 0.25 mg L-1 BAP with 28 day chilling even gave more than 90% seed germination. Present findings suggest that seeds germination of Asafoetida can be greatly improved by combining chilling with BAP application