ผลของการใช้ซัลฟิ วริก น ้าร้อน และความเย็นต่อความงอกของเมล็ดพันธุ์ชมจันทร์ (Ipomoea alba L.) Effects of Sulphuric Acid, Boiling Water and Pre-Cooling Treatments on Germination of Moonflower (Ipomoea alba L.) Seeds พัชรินทร์ อินทร์ช่วย 1 พรวดี ภัดีพบูย์ 1 พิจิตรา แก้วสอน 1 ปริยานุช จุลกะ 1 และ วันชัย จันทร์ประเสริฐ 2

Moonflower (Ipomoea alba L.) belongs to the Convolvulaceae family. The white moonflower blooms at night. The flower buds are edible cooked such as boiling, frying or blanching and serving with chili paste as a side dish. Moreover, flower buds have high nutritional value, low fat and a mild laxative. Moonflower production is often found the problems of hardseededness with low seed germination, delayed germination and nonuniformity. Therefore, this research was to study the effects of sulphuric acid, boiling water and pre-cooling treatments on germination of moonflower seeds. This research was done at Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Kasetsart University, Bangkhen Campus during January to June 2012. The experiment was designed in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) that composed of 14 treatments: untreated seeds (control), clipping, soaking in 98% H 2 SO 4 for 1, 2, 3 and 4 minutes, dipping in boiling water for 2, 4, and 6 seconds, and pre–cooling at -20°C for 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours. The results showed that clipping and soaking in 98% H 2 SO 4 for 4 minutes gave the highest seed germination 95 and 94.8%, respectively. Moreover, pre–cooling at -20°C for 96 hours tended to increase the germination 31.5% but that was below 50% when compared with untreated seeds (control) 20% germination.