Could packing and pelleting keep the quality of tobacco seeds during storage?

Abstract

The packaging, used to maintain the seeds during storage, is extremely important in their conservation. Seeds from the cultivar BAT 2101 were used in order to evaluate the effect of packaging on the conservation of the quality of bare and pelleted tobacco seeds stored in the long-term. After characterization of the lot profile, the seeds were stored for 180, 360, 540, and 720 days under ambient conditions at 25 °C ± 2 and 62.8% relative humidity in cotton bags, aluminum cans, laminated envelopes, plastic envelopes and paper envelopes. The seed quality throughout the storage in the different packages was determined by the water content and germination tests, first germination count, germination speed index, initial and final emergence and emergence speed index. The aluminum can packaging keeps the quality of bare and pelleted tobacco seeds for a period of 720 days. Up to 360 days of storage, there was a decrease in the dormancy of bare and pelleted seeds with an increase in deterioration after this period, except for those kept in the aluminum can packing.

Sorption isotherms of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacumL.) seeds

“…Tobacco seeds of various genotypes have been found to contain about 30-49% glyceride oil (with palmitic, oleic and linoleic acids being the dominant fatty acids), 0.3-1.7% phospholipids (phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylcholine, and phosphatidylethanolamine as the primary components), 0.3-0.8% sterols (mainly β-sitosterol, stigmasterol and campesterol), 2-195 mg.kg −1 tocopherols (mainly γ-tocopherol), 18-41% protein (rich in essential amino acids), 3.5-21.8% fiber, macro and micro minerals (K, Mg, Na, Zn, Cu), and other valuable nutrients [5,6,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. The tiny tobacco seeds, 10000-16000 units in a gram, constitute about 3.7% of the plant biomass in Oriental tobacco, thus providing an average yield of about 300 kg/ha [16,17].…”

“…Tobacco seeds tolerate long storage, provided that low moisture content is maintained; the seeds may remain viable even after 9-15 years if stored at a moisture content below 4% along with desiccants [19]. It should be outlined that tobacco seeds for planting purposes are stored under regulated conditions (temperature, relative air humidity, packaging), as the national legislation sets a maximum seed moisture content of 10% [18], in view of sustaining the most important seed parameters, viability and germination vigor [16,18]. On the other hand, the seeds for potential alternative use are harvested at different ripeness stages (i.e.…”