Author(s): S. DAS, S. MOHANTY AND S. DASH

Abstract: An investigation was undertaken to study therneffect of seed colouring with a few natural and artificial dyes on storabilityrnof maize seeds. Freshly harvested maize seeds were treated with fungicidern(Thiram @ 2g kg^-1 seed), followed byrncolouring with five artificial dyes @ 0.75% concentration, viz. Aniline blue,rnCongo red, Methyl violet, Bromocresol purple and Coomasie brilliant blue, andrnfour natural dyes, viz. beet (root tuber extract), turmeric (dried rhizomernpowder), mehndi (leaf extract), marigold ( extract from petals). One controlrnwas also taken, in which only fungicide treatment was given. After colouring,rnthe seeds were dried to moisture content below MSCS (12.0%) and stored in clothrnbags under ambient conditions for a period of 8 months, i.e. from October, 2014rnto May, 2015. Most of the dye treatments, both artificial and natural, had somerndeleterious effect on maintenance of viability in seeds, as compared torncontrol, though in some cases the differences were statisticallyrnnon-significant. None of the dyes had any beneficial effect on germination orrnvigour parameters. Among the artificial dyes, least deleterious effect was observedrnin case of seeds treated with bromocresol purple and congo red, in terms ofrnvarious physiological parameters like germinability, per cent abnormalrnseedlings, seed vigour indices and field emergence. Among natural dyes, mehndirnand marigold treated seeds gave better results than the beet and turmericrntreated seeds, in terms of the physiological parameters. However, seedsrncoloured with turmeric showed significantly lower insect infestation throughoutrnthe period of storage, as compared to the other treatments and control, clearlyrnindicating its role in control of insect infestation during storage. Maximumrndeleterious effect of seed physiological parameters was recorded in case ofrnaniline blue and methyl violet.

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