The effect of imbibition time and ultrasound pretreatment on germination and biochemical feature of Echinacea purpurea L

Seed pre-treatment with ultrasound wave is a bio-physical method of seed priming, seed imbibition with water is also a way to improve germination, so in order to investigate the effect of ultrasound pretreatment and 4 imbibition hours' time (0, 3, 6 and 9 hour) on germination and biochemical feature of Echinacea purpureaL., A completely randomized design experiment with 8 treatment and 3 replications was conducted. Treatments including 4 imbibition time (I) and ultra-sonic wave (W) with this arrangement (I0W0, IW, I3W0, I3W, I6W0, I6W, I9W0 and I9W). The results of analyses of variance showed that the effect of imbibition times and ultrasonic wave on total characteristics was significant. Ultra-sonic wave and imbibition times in most treatment increased germination percentage then to control. The highest and lowest amount of germination percentage respectively in I6W and control (I0W0) with means of 97.3 and 84% observed. The highest amount of solution protein in treatments I6W and I9W with average of 43.2 mgg-1 FW and the lowest amount of it in control with average of 27 mgg-1 FW was observed. Ultra-sonic wave and imbibition times in total treatment could show higher amount of total sugar then to control. The highest amount of starch in control and I0W treatment with average of 5.8 mgg-1 FW and the lowest amount of it in treatment IW6 with average of 3.02 mgg-1 FW observed, and the end imbibition with ultra-sonic wave could improve germination percent and germination rate in Echinacea purpurea seeds.