Essential oils in the treatment of vegetable seeds

• Grant number: 24/23190-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Pâmela Gomes Nakada Freitas
• Grantee: Tatiana de Grande Pavarina
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Tecnológicas. Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Dracena. Dracena , SP, Brazil

Abstract

New technologies are being applied to improve quality of life, and the population is also seeking improvements in food quality. After the global pandemic that affected the health of countless people, this need to improve diets has led people to seek healthier foods. The excessive use of agricultural inputs in conventional farming is in contrast to the search for alternatives for sustainability in general. Organic farming has gained emphasis, but products for this purpose are scarce. Making it essential to seek alternative products to control pathogens in seeds, without affecting their physiological quality, the aim is to verify the effect of concentrations of essential oils of rosemary, cinnamon and citronella grass in the treatment of vegetable seeds on their physiological and sanitary quality. The study species will be pumpkin, okra and cucumber seeds, with treatments in a 3x5 factorial scheme (essential oils: rosemary, pepper, cinnamon and citronella grass x concentration of essential oils for seed fumigation: 0%, 0.1%, 0.5%, 0.7% and 1%). The seeds will be treated under constant agitation in a beaker for five minutes and 1% (v/v) of Tween 20 will be added to the solution to facilitate the emulsification of each essential oil. The control, which will correspond to the seeds without any treatment, will also be evaluated. The experimental design will be completely randomized with four replicates. Each plant species (pumpkin, cucumber and okra) will be an experiment, totaling three. The following characteristics will be analyzed: health test, germination, first germination count, primary root length, aerial part and total seedling length, seedling dry mass and analysis of the chemical composition of essential oils. The data of each plant species will be subjected to analysis of variance and if there is a significant difference, the Tukey test will be applied to compare the essential oils and regression analysis will be applied to the concentration factor of these, both at a 5% probability level. (AU)