Diyala Agricultural Sciences Journal 14(1), 2022: 66-72 

Mona. A. O. Allafe, Asmaa R. S. Adam  

ISSN: 2073-9524 

eISSN: 2310-8746 

 

66 
 

Influence of Colchicine Concentrations on Wheat Seeds 

Germination and Seedling Quality 

Mona. A. O. Allafe 
1

 , Asmaa R. S. Adam 
2

 

1 
Environmental Sciences Department, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environmental 

Sciences, Tobruk University, Libya 
2 

Crops Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Derna University, Libya 

1
Corresponding Author: mona.allafa@tu.edu.ly 

Article history:  
Received: 3 March 2022 
Accepted: 21 April 2022 
Published: 30 June 2022 

Abstract 

The study investigated the effect of colchicine (C) on seeds germination, as well 

as morph physiological traits of wheat, where dry wheat seeds were treated with 

colchicine at concentrations of (C) were (0.02, 0.04, 0.06, and 0.08 %) compared 

to soaking in distilled water (control). The variance analysis results of laboratory 

germination experiments as well as in field experiments under rain-fed conditions 

showed that there were significant differences (P < 0.05) in the mean of most of 

the studied quantitative traits: germination quality such as germination force (%), 

germination energy (%), and laboratory germination (%). Leaf area (cm
2
), root 

spread, stem diameter (cm), as well as wet and dry weight under the influence of 

the different concentrations of colchicine. Where the results showed that when 

used wheat seeds which pre-soaked with colchicine solution at a concentration of 

(0.06) % for 56 hours pre-sowing, led to an obvious significant increase in all 

studied traits morph physiological properties and seedling vigor when compared 

to the control (untreated seeds - treated with distilled water only) as well as when 

compared with other concentrations of colchicine. 

Keywords: Arid and semi-

arid regions, colchicine, 

germination quality, 

seedling vigor, wheat 

https://dx.doi.org/10.52951/dasj.22140108 

This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Introduction 

Arid and semi-arid regions represent 

about 40% of the Earth's surface area, on 

which a large number of people live, and 

who work in various agricultural activities 

to meet their basic needs. However, 

agricultural activities in these regions face 

diverse constraints including low and erratic 

rainfall, extreme heat and frequent drought, 

and salinity in some low land regions. 

Which limited soil productivity in these 

regions, which also negatively affected the 

productivity of crop plants. Therefore, this 

was an impetus to come up with some 

different agricultural practices to cope with 

these challenges, modify and recommend 

them to maintain agricultural production, 

and improve the productivity of crops grown 

in these regions, which most of them are 

suffering from food insecure (Qader et al., 

2018; Golla, 2021). 

Libya is one of the countries located 

within the arid and semi-arid lands, where 

located in the northern part of the continent 

of Africa and is the fourth largest African 

country. Agricultural activities represent an 

important part of the Libyan economy, as 

this sector comprises approximately 5% of 

the labor force and participates in 9 % of the 

gross domestic product.  (The regions 

northeastern and western regions are the 

most arable areas in Libya (Al-Jabal al 

Akhdar and Al Jifarah Plain), amounting to 

2.2 million hectares (FAO, 2009). 

Changes in climatic factors and 

restrictions on agricultural lands led to 

restricting cereals production to only wheat 

and barley in Libya, just like all countries in 

mailto:mona.allafa@tu.edu.ly
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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9505-0216
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Diyala Agricultural Sciences Journal 14(1), 2022: 66-72 

67 
 

the arid and semi-arid regions. The 

agriculture of these cereals crops extends 

along the coastal strip depending on rainfall 

during the winter growing season (from 

November to April). Wheat is the most 

important cereal crop in the world, as well 

as arid and semi-arid areas in terms of 

cultivated area and production, but it comes 

in second place after barley under Libyan 

conditions where the cultivated area in 2020 

amounted to 160 thousand hectares, and the 

total production amounted to 200 thousand 

hectares tons. Despite this, the value of 

wheat imports in the same year amounted to 

1.5 million tons, as reported by the FAO.  

It was found that one of the current 

trends to improve the productivity of crops 

in general and rainfed crops is to obtain 

good characteristics of crop seedlings in 

terms of vigorous growth, strong and rapid 

root spread to overcome these climatic 

conditions. Where it was found that the use 

of colchicine has an important role in 

improving the productivity of plants by 

improving the qualities and quality of 

seedlings and accelerating the germination 

and growth of many crops. In 2015 Eunice 

Essel and others found that the use of 

colchicine led to a significant improvement 

in all vegetative growth characteristics, as 

well as an increase in the number of leaves 

and tillers per plant. Which ultimately 

positively affects productivity. 

Materials and Methods 

Experiments were conducted in the 

department of environmental sciences, 

Faculty of natural resources and 

environmental sciences, University of 

Tobruk, Libya.  

In a laboratory experiment the effect of 

soaking wheat seeds (Mexican variety) in a 

solution of colchicine at different 

concentrations (0.02, 0.04 0.06, and 0.08) % 

compared to soaking in distilled water 

(control), was studied to determine the 

efficiency of colchicine in improving 

germination properties. The percentage of 

energy germination was estimated after 4 

days of planting and laboratory germination 

after a week according to what was 

mentioned by (Abdel Hamid S.E.A, Bugaev 

P.D, 2018), as well as the germination force 

that was estimated during 14 days of 

cultivation. The seeds were soaked for 56 

hours before sowing using a completely 

random design in 3 replicates during the 

2020 season. 

Another experiment was conducted in 

boxes in the open field under rainfed 

conditions, where Mexican wheat was 

planted (using a completely random design 

in 3 replicates) each replicate with 100 seeds 

and the effect of colchicine on the morpho-

physiological characteristics of wheat 

seedlings was studied, (where the wheat 

seeds were soaked 56 hours pre-sowing). 

Where the data was recorded during two 

stages (the stage of seedling growth 14 days 

after planting), and the second after two 

weeks from the first stage (for each 

replicate). Root and feather length (cm), wet 

and dry weight (g), leaf area (cm
2
), and stem 

diameter (cm) were calculated during the 

two study stages. 

Statistical analysis 

Data were analyzed by using software 

IBM SPSS Statistics 20, and analysis of 

variance (ANOVA) significant treatment 

means were compared using the least 

significance difference (L.S.D) test at 0.05 

according to (Gomez and Gomez, 1980) 

Results and Discussion 

The results in figure 1 showed the effect 

of the pre-soaked wheat seeds in colchicine, 

and pre-sowing on the quality of wheat 

seedling. The Laboratory germination, 

force, and energy of germination.  

Laboratory results showed that morpho-

physiological evaluation of seedlings and 

the effect of the seed treatments pre-sowing 

(soaking), where obtained data showed that 

the response of wheat seeds to the different 

concentrations of colchicine. The use of 



Diyala Agricultural Sciences Journal 14(1), 2022: 66-72 

 

68 
 

colchicine led to an improvement and 

increase in germination characteristics, the 

differences were significant when 

comparing the different concentrations of 

colchicine when compared to the control 

(untreated seeds). The percentage of 

germination energy, laboratory germination, 

and germination force increased when 

soaking in (0.06) % concentration by (5.6, 

4.5 and 8) % respectively, compared to the 

control, which reached (89, 92 and 88) %, 

respectively.  

    On the other hand, the performance of 

seedlings did not differ, and the differences 

were not significant at (0.08) % 

concentration with the control, while the 

results were somewhat similar at (0.02 and 

0.06) % concentrations. These results are 

consistent with what was reached and 

mentioned by (Mensah et al., 2007) on the 

sesame.  The results are also in agreement 

with what was done by Kolhe and others in 

2020 when they used colchicine on 

coriander, where explained that the use of 

colchicine led to a remarkable improvement 

in the vegetative growth, which led to an 

increase in productivity,

 

 

Figure 1. Effect of different concentrations of colchicine on germination traits (%)

The data presented in Table 1 shows the 

effect of colchicine on the vigor of 

germination and the emergence of seedlings 

by calculating the number of days from 

planting until the appearance of the first 

seedling. Where we find that the use of 

colchicine led to an increase in the speed of 

germination compared to the control, 

knowing that this differed with the different 

concentrations of colchicine and the results 

were significant differences. The results 

recorded an increase in the speed of seed 

germination and force of seedlings by (38.5 

and 34.6) % when pre-soaking wheat seeds 

in colchicine pre-sowing at a concentration 

of (0.06 and 0.020) % compared to the 

control, respectively.We note, according to 

the data in the table, that the emergence of 

the first germination of wheat seeds was 

after 26 days of planting in untreated seeds 

(soaking in distilled water (control), while 

germination was after (16, 17, 21, and 23) 

days when used pre-soaked wheat seeds in 

colchicine, at these four different 

concentrations of colchicine, respectively.

 

 

82

84

86

88

90

92

94

96

98

Control (C0) C 0.02 C 0.04 C 0.06 C 0.08

Fig (1) Effect of diffirent concentrations of colchicine on 
germination traits (%) 

Germination energy (%) Laboratory germination (%) Germination force (%)



Diyala Agricultural Sciences Journal 14(1), 2022: 66-72 

69 
 

Table 1. Impact of colchicine on wheat seeds germination (day) 

Colchicine 

concentration 

(%) 

Number of days after planting 

7 10 13 16 17 21 23 26 

Control) - - - - - - -   

0.2 - - - -   - - - 

0.4 - - - - - -   - 

0.6 - - -   - - - - 

0.8 - - - - -   - - 

 

The effect of different colchicine 

concentrations on root and feather length in 

the field is shown in Fig( 2) at colchicine 

concentration (0.02 to 0.08)% in the first 

phase in the 14 
th

 day after planting, the root 

length ranges from( 8.8 to 5.3) cm 

respectively, While the root length was 3.8 

cm by control. Root length also increased 

during the second stage, in the 28 
th

 day after 

planting by (36, 34, 35 and 49) %, 

respectively, while the root length increased 

in untreated seeds by (28) %. 

    As for the feather length, the wheat seeds 

pre-soaked with a colchicine concentration 

of (0.6) % recorded the best results, as the 

feather length increased by (92.5) % in the 

first stage, and (149.2) % in the second stage 

compared to the control (untreated seeds).

 

 
Figure 2. Effect of different concentrations of colchicine on root and feather length (cm/plant)

The following figure 3 shows the fresh 

and dry weight of plants during the two 

study phases (14 and 28) days after planting 

This indicates the discrepancy in the 

performance of wheat with the different 

concentrations of colchicine and we found a 

clear superiority in the performance of 

seedlings when using the 0.6 concentration, 

which increased the wet weight by (167 and 

139) % compared to the control 

respectively. Also the accumulation of dry 

matter increased by (85 and 90) % 

compared to the control during the two 

growth phases under study, respectively.

 

3.8 

8.8 

5.8 
7.3 

5.3 5.2 

13.8 

8.8 

11.3 
10.3 

4 

6.3 

2.4 

7.7 
6.1 6.5 

13.7 

5.2 

16.2 

14.2 

0

5

10

15

20

Control (C0) C 0.02 C 0.04 C 0.06 C 0.08

Fig (2) Effect of diffirent concentrations of colchicine on 
roots and feather length (cm/plant) 

Length  roots (cm)/plant Length  roots (cm)/plant

Length  feather (cm)/plant Length  feather (cm)/plant



Diyala Agricultural Sciences Journal 14(1), 2022: 66-72 

 

70 
 

Figure 3. Effect of different concentrations of Colchicine on wet and dry weight (100 plants (g) 

 

Colchicine had a positive effect on both 

the leaf area as well as the stem diameter. 

We note a significant and clear increase in 

the leaf area of wheat seedlings in Table 2 

which increased during the first stage of 

recording and enumerating the data from 

(60) cm
2
 for untreated wheat seeds to 

(203.7) cm
2
 when the wheat seeds were 

soaked in colchicine solution at a 

concentration of (0.06) % and thus the 

increase was (240) %. 

During the second stage (28) days after 

sowing, leaf area increased by (336) % as 

well when soaking in colchicine solution at 

a concentration of (0.06) % compared to 

control. 

The improvement and increase in these 

traits when presoaking wheat seeds may be 

due to chromosomal doubling, which led to 

an increase in vegetative growth indicators, 

tissue thickness development and an 

increase in cell size (Dehghan et al., 2010; 

Hiaba and Mohamed, 2009). 

Table 2. Impact of different concentrations of colchicine on leaf area (cm
2
) and stem diameter (cm) 

Colchicine 

concentration 

(%) 

leaf area (cm
2
) stem diameter (cm) 

after 14 days after 28 days after 14 days after 28 days 

Control  60.00 75.00 0.50 0.50 

0.2 116.3 261.3 0.60 0.74 

0.4 59.00 75.50 0.60 0.70 

0.6 203.7 327.0 0.82 0.94 

0.8 120.7 300.0 0.60 0.80 

 

Table 3 deals with the effect of 

colchicine on both the number of lateral 

roots as well as the number of leaves of each 

plant during the two study phases (14 and 

28) days after planting. The results of 

colchicine treatments didn’t achieve 

significant differences on the number of 

roots, which was clearly reflected evident on 

the number of leaves per plant, which was 

represented by three leaves for all treatments 

during the first stage.  Despite the slight 

increase in the number of roots during the 

second stage (14) days after planting, It 

didn’t affect the number of leaves of the 

plant when the seeds were treated with a 

concentration of (0.02 and 0.04) % of 

colchicine, as well as the untreated seeds. 

On the other hand, the number of leaves 

increased with an increase the concentration 

of colchicine to (0.06 and 0.08) % by (67 

and 33) % respectively compared to the 

control.

0

10

20

30

40

Control (C0) C 0.02 C 0.04 C 0.06 C 0.08

Fig (3) Effect of diffirent concentrations of colchicine on wet 
and dry weight 100 plants (g) 

Wet weight  100 plants (gr.) Wet weight  100 plants (gr.)

Dry weight  100 plants (gr.) Dry weight  100 plants (gr.)



Diyala Agricultural Sciences Journal 14(1), 2022: 66-72 

71 
 

Table 3. Effect of different concentrations of colchicine on number of roots and leaves per plant 

Colchicine 

concentration 

(%) 

Number of roots per plant Number of leaves per plant 

after 14 days after 28 days after 14 days after 28 days 

Control  4 5 3 3 

0.2 6 7 3 3 

0.4 5 5 3 3 

0.6 6 8 3 5 

0.8 4 5 3 4 

 

Conclusion 

According to the results obtained by 

using colchicine solution to soak wheat 

seeds (Mexican variety) pre-sowing it was 

found that colchicine had a positive effect 

on the germination traits and quality of 

wheat seeds as well as the force and speed 

of seedling growth during laboratory 

germination experiments as well as in field 

experiments under rain-fed conditions. 

Through the use of wheat seeds pre-soaked 

with colchicine solution at a concentration 

of (0.06) % for 56 hours pre-sowing, there 

were significant differences in most of the 

studied traits, such as germination energy, 

laboratory germination, seedling vigor, 

growth force, spread roots and leaf area.  

Conflict of Interest 

The authors declare that they have no 

conflict of interest. 

Acknowledgments 

The authors extend their sincere thanks 

and gratitude to all the staff at department of 

environmental sciences, Faculty of natural 

resources and environmental sciences 

Tobruk University, Libya. 

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