Tetrapleura tetraptera (Schum and Thonn) is a valued forest species in Nigeria for its medicinal and culinary uses. But the plant is uncultivated, and its seeds are dormant. This poses an obvious challenge in efforts aimed at its conservation. Different pretreatment protocols (scarification) were tested for their efficiency to break the hard seed coat of T. tetraptera. Mature fruits of T. tetraptera were collected from Oban west forest in Cross River State, and the seeds extracted and scarified before germination. Mechanical scarification was done by rubbing the seeds against a rough cement wall; chemical scarification by soaking the seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid, concentrated hydrochloric acid and concentrated nitric acid for 15 minutes; while heat scarification was done by soaking the seeds in hot water. Seed dormancy was successfully broken either by mechanical or chemical scarification. Significant difference (p<0.001) was observed in germination and imbibition percentage within the non-scarified and scarified seeds. While the non-scarified seeds had the least germination (18.3%), seed scarified with sulphuric acid had the highest (90%) followed by mechanically scarified seeds (85%) and nitric acid scarified seeds (81.7%). Imbibition percentage increased up to 100% in the scarified seeds in contrast to 66.6% in the non-scarified seeds. This study shows that sulphuric acid scarification is an effective method for breaking seed coat-imposed dormancy in Tetrapleura tetraptera.
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