Impact of essential oils on seed quality and seed-borne pathogens of Althea officinalis seeds of different ages

Chemical and Biological Technologies in Agriculture

Table 1 Results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) for seed quality: abnormal seedlings (AS) growth of embryonic stems and roots, presence of pathogens, GS—germinated seeds, DS—dormant seeds, DeS%—dead seeds

Factor		df	Seed quality %			AS	Seedling growth, cm			Present pathogens %
Factor		df	GS	DS	DeS	AS	Stem	Root	Mucor	Alternaria	Fusarium	Penicillium
Essential oil—A		8	***	***	***	***	***	***	***	***	***	***
Seed age—Y		3	**	**	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Laboratory—C		2	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
Interaction	A × Y	24	**	*	*	**	*	*	*	**	*	*
	A × C	16	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
	Y × C	6	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
	A × Y × C	48	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns

Factor investigated: essential oil (A), seed age (Y), laboratory (C)
F test, statistical significance levels: *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001, ns not significant (ns ≥ 0.05), df degrees of freedom