Testes de qualidade física e fisiológica em sementes de jambu.

Abstract

Jambu is a species that has great commercial value both for culinary and medicinal purposes. Because it is a non-conventional food plant, little information is found on its agronomic aspect, especially regarding seed technology. As it is on the rise in the market, it is important that the jambu seeds are marketed according to the rules of production and marketing of seeds. Therefore, this work aimed to evaluate the physical and physiological quality of jambu (Acmella oleráceae (L.) R.K Jansen) seeds, purple variety, as a function of water content in the seed. The study was carried out in the Seed Analysis Laboratory of the Federal Rural University of the Amazon. Seed biometry and counting was performed on eighty floral chapters of jambu taken from the lot, classified into groups (G1, G2, G3, G4) and differentiated by their length range. For the purity analysis, four sub-samples of one gram of seeds were separated, processed and the mass of seeds and inert material was measured. The weight of one thousand seeds was determined based on the recommendations of the Standards for Seed Analysis, using the weight of eight repetitions of 50 seeds. To measure the water content of the seeds, four repetitions of 0.3 g of seeds were defined and placed in aluminum capsules, later placed in an oven at 105 ± 3°C for 24 hours. An entirely randomized design was used with five treatments (water content) for drying the seeds (T1 - 9.5%; T2 - 8.4%; T3- 7.1%; T4 - 6.7%; T5 - 5.8%) with eight repetitions of fifty seeds, totaling 400 seeds per treatment. The seeds were dried in an acclimatized room at 20ºC (±3) and relative humidity 55%. Germination tests were performed on “mata borrão” paper, in a controlled environment in the germination chamber at a temperature of 30ºC ±3 with a photoperiod of 12 hours, where they remained until the eighth day under analysis. The following parameters were evaluated: germination (G), dead seeds (DS) and abnormal seedlings (AS); days to start germination (DSG), germination speed index (GSI) and total dry mass (TDM). The biometric data were subjected to analysis of variance and the drying data were analyzed for normality and equality of variance by the Shapiro Wilk and Bartlett tests using the R 4.1.0 software. When significant, these were compared by Tukey's test (p<0.005). The variables that did not pass the test of normality and equality of variance were analyzed by non-parametric statistics through the Kruskal-Wallis test, when detected statistically significant difference, the data were compared by the Dunn test (p<0.005). The physical and physiological quality tests on jambu seeds show that the jambu seeds are considered light, weighing 0.20 g in 1,000 seeds.Its flower chapters, according to their dimensions, have a large number of seeds reaching average values of 535 seeds, but contains low percentage of purity in 1 gram (39.05 %), being recommended its processing for commercial purposes. The seeds do not present sensitivity to the reduction of the water content, being able to be submitted to the drying around 5.8 %, keeping its physiological quality. The jambu seeds are considered light, possess low percentage of purity in 1g, being recommended its processing for commercial purposes. The seeds do not present sensitivity to the reduction of the water content, and can be submitted to drying around 5% and stored for long periods, maintaining their physiological quality.