Table 1.

Chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b concentration (mg g⁻¹ FW) in upper (U) and lower (L) cotyledons of embryos or seedlings developing from control dormant embryos, embryos pre-treated with NO immediately after seed coat removal (NO), and embryos fumigated with NO after 5 days of imbibition in water (5d+NO). Chlorophyll concentration was determined at 5th, 8th and 10th day of culture period

Days of culture	Treatment	Cotyledon	Chl a	Chl b	Chl a + b	Ratio chl a:chl b
5	Control	U	0.0	0.0	0.0	–
		L	0.0130 ± 0.0020	0.0	0.0120 ± 0.0040	–
	NO	U	0.0230 ± 0.0020*	0.0080 ± 0.0021*	0.0300 ± 0.0030*	2.8
		L	0.0250 ± 0.0020	0.0070 ± 0.0018*	0.0310 ± 0.0050*	3.5
8	Control	U	0.0016 ± 0.0005	0.0002 ± 0.0001	0.0016 ± 0.0005	8.0
		L	0.0420 ± 0.0060	0.0085 ± 0.0012	0.0420 ± 0.0070	4.9
	NO	U	0.1270 ± 0.0320*	0.0190 ± 0.0023*	0.1200 ± 0.0200*	6.7
		L	0.1170 ± 0.0230*	0.0270 ± 0.0056*	0.1200 ± 0.0300*	6.3
	5d+NO	U	0.0490 ± 0.0080*	0.0073 ± 0.0010	0.0550 ± 0.0100	6.7
		L	0.0510 ± 0.0090	0.0270 ± 0.0060*	0.0750 ± 0.0120*	1.9
10	Control	U	0.0110 ± 0.0020	0.0	0.0100 ± 0.0020	–
		L	0.1190 ± 0.0350	0.0125 ± 0.0020	0.1250 ± 0.0300	9.5
	NO	U	0.2450 ± 0.0650*	0.0400 ± 0.0070*	0.2700 ± 0.0700*	6.2
		L	0.2720 ± 0.0780*	0.0400 ± 0.0040*	0.2900 ± 0.0800*	6.8
	5d + NO	U	0.2300 ± 0.0560*	0.0510 ± 0.0100*	0.2700 ± 0.0650*	4.5
		L	0.2250 ± 0.0490*	0.0290 ± 0.0030*	0.2450 ± 0.0500*	7.7

Values are average ± SE of 4–5 replicated experiments

Asterisk (*) indicates significance from control at the same time of culture at P ≤ 0.05