Optimizing bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) performance: exploring the impact of varied seed priming durations and zinc oxide nanoparticle concentrations on germination, growth, phytochemical attributes, and agronomic outcomes

Figures & data

Figure 1. The transmission electron micrograph of ZnONPs depicting polygonal to quasi-spherical shapes. For imaging purposes, a FEI Tecnai 12 instrument equipped with a digital camera from Gatan was utilized. The nanoparticles were dried on a copper grid coated with a carbon layer.

Figure 2. Germination attributes of bitter gourd plants as affected by various priming treatments of ZnONPs (Mean ± S. E. n = 3). 0 ppm is the control treatment with hydro priming with tap water overnight.

Figure 3. Biomass and yield attributes of bitter gourd plants as affected by various priming treatments of ZnONPs (Mean ± S.E. n = 3). 0 ppm is the control treatment with hydro priming.

Figure 4. Biomass and yield attributes of bitter gourd plants as affected by various priming treatments of ZnONPs (Mean ± S.E. n = 3). 0 ppm is the control treatment with hydro priming.

Figure 5. Phytochemical of bitter gourd plants as affected by various priming treatments of ZnONPs (Mean ± S.E. n = 3). 0 ppm is the control treatment with hydro priming.

Figure 6. Loading plots of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showing significant correlation among the studied variables of Bitter gourd plants. GP% = Germination Percentage, SVI-1 = Seedling Vigour Index in Terms of Seedling Length, SVI-II = Seedling Vigour Index in terms of Dry Weight (g), SRL (cm) = Seedling Root Length, SSL (cm) = Seedling Shoot Length, NOB/P = Number of Branches Per Plant, LA (cm) = Leaf Area, NODF = Number of Days to Flowering, NOF/P = Number of Fruits per Plant, F. De g/cm³ = Fruit Density Gram, FL(cm) = Fruit Length, FD(cm) = Fruit Diameter, FFY/P(Kg) = Fresh Fruit Yield per Plant, NOS/F = Number of Seeds per Fruit, 1000 SW(g) = Thousand Seeds Weights, TP mg GA eq. = Total Phenolic Contents, TF mg Q eq. = Total Flavonoids, T.C ug/g = Mature Fruit Charantin Contents.

Table 1. Physiochemical parameters of bitter gourd seeds measured after seed priming using zinc Oxide NPs and analysed through ANOVA (with mean square and p values).

Variation Source	^adf	GP%	SVI-I	SVI-II	SRL	SSL	NOB/P
Priming Treatment (PT)	4	186***(0.000)	1002004.5***(0.000)	1733.080***(0.000)	10.041*** (0.000)	16.059***(0.000)	560.233*** (0.000)
Error	10	3.110	182.746	34.829	0.309	0.388	7.934
Variation Source	df	LA	NODF	FFY/P	FL	FD	NOF/P
Priming Treatment (PT)	4	80.266*** (0.000)	65.066*** (0.000)	1.294***(0.000)	1.167*** (0.000)	0.544*** (0.000)	11.333***(0.000)
Error	10	1.26	1.533	0.018	0.012	0.006	0.466
Variation Source	df	NOS/F	1000 SW	FD	TP	TF	TC 8.5712267*** (0.000) 0.311
Priming Treatment (PT)	4	74.266667*** (0.000)	209.5***(0.000)	0.01896***(0.000)	8.0548933*** (0.000)	2.4499067 ***(0.000)
Error	10	1.266	7.333	0.333	0.161	0.041

***significant, Df = Degrees of freedom GP% = Germination Percentage, SVI-1 = Seedling Vigour Index in Terms of Seedling Length, SVI-II = Seedling Vigour Index in terms of Dry Weight (g), SRL (cm) = Seedling Root Length, SSL (cm) = Seedling Shoot Length, NOB/P = Number of Branches Per Plant, LA (cm) = Leaf Area, NODF = Number of Days to Flowering, NOF/P = Number of Fruits per Plant, F. De g/cm3 = Fruit Density Gram, FL(cm) = Fruit Length, FD(cm) = Fruit Diameter, FFY/P(Kg) = Fresh Fruit Yield per Plant, NOS/F = Number of Seeds per Fruit, 1000 SW(g) = Thousand Seeds Weights, TP. = Total Phenolic Contents, TF. = Total Flavonoids, T.C = Mature Fruit Charantin Contents.

Table 2. Spearman correlation matrix showing significant correlation among germination, growth and yield parameters.

Variables	GP%	SVI-1	SVI-II	SRL (cm)	SSL (cm)	NOB/P	LA (cm)	NODF	FFY/P(Kg)	FL(cm)	FD(cm)	NOF/P	NOS/F	1000 SW(g)
GP%	1
SVI-1	0.985*
SVI-II	0.989*	0.982*
SRL (cm)	0.992*	0.978*	0.978*
SSL (cm)	0.996*	0.989*	0.992*	0.989*
NOB/P	0.996*	0.989*	0.992*	0.989*	1.000*
LA (cm)	0.978*	0.967*	0.989*	0.971*	0.982*	0.982*
NODF	−0.975*	−0.961*	−0.991*	−0.974*	−0.979*	−0.979*	−0.986*
FFY/P(Kg)	0.996*	0.982*	0.992*	0.985*	0.992*	0.992*	0.975*	−0.979*
FL(cm)	0.989*	0.982*	0.992*	0.985*	0.992*	0.992*	0.975*	−0.988*	0.992*
FD(cm)	0.996*	0.989*	0.992*	0.989*	1.000*	1.000*	0.982*	−0.979*	0.992*	0.992*
NOF/P	0.967*	0.965*	0.964*	0.965*	0.974*	0.974*	0.954*	−0.961*	0.962*	0.976*	0.974*
NOS/F	0.992*	0.984*	0.986*	0.995*	0.995*	0.995*	0.977*	−0.982*	0.986*	0.993*	0.995*	0.978*
1000 SW(g)	0.980*	0.985*	0.975*	0.973*	0.983*	0.983*	0.957V	−0.959*	0.976*	0.976*	0.983*	0.958*	0.979*	1

GP% = Germination Percentage, SVI-1 = Seedling Vigour Index in Terms of Seedling Length, SVI-II = Seedling Vigour Index in terms of Dry Weight (g), SRL (cm) = Seedling Root Length, SSL (cm) = Seedling Shoot Length, NOB/P  =  Number of Branches Per Plant, LA (cm) = Leaf Area, NODF = Number of Days to Flowering, NOF/P  =  Number of Fruits per Plant, FL(cm) = Fruit Length, FD(cm) = Fruit Diameter, FFY/P(Kg) = Fresh Fruit Yield per Plant, NOS/F = Number of Seeds per Fruit, 1000 SW(g) = Thousand Seeds Weights.

Data availability

All data are available from the corresponding author.