Effect of Seed Ageing on Biochemical Changes in Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.) cv. VBN 3.

Investigation was carried out to elucidate the mechanism of seed ageing inpigeonpea seed (cv.VBN 3). The laboratory studies were conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, 2011. The study on accelerated aging revealed that membrane integrity as reflected through electrical conductivity measurements, leachate amino Acids, leachate sugars and lipid peroxidation was least affected while the activities of enzymes such as dehydrogenase, catalase and peroxidase enzymes were relatively higher in T₄, T₅, T₆, T₇, T₈, T₉, T₁₀, T₁₁ and T₁₂ treatments than T₁, T₂ and T₃ and T₁₃ where in the seed quality character in terms of biochemical characterswas shown to increase linearly in accordance with the seed ageing period. The effects suggest that the process of accelerated ageing correlated to increased accumulation of total peroxide content and decreased activities of peroxidase, antioxidant enzyme activity.