Effect of Storage Temperature on Seed Quality of Camellia oleifera Abel

NI Tianhong; ZHANG He; XU Hui; GONG Shoufu; ZHANG Yan; CHEN Liwen

doi:10.15933/j.cnki.1004-3268.2026.01.016

Abstract：To investigate the effects of storage temperature on the quality of Camellia oleifera seeds and reveal the variation patterns of seed vigor indices(malondialdehyde content and relative conductivity)and internal constituent indexes(soluble sugar content,soluble protein content,fat content,and starch content)under different storage temperature conditions,Camellia oleifera seeds were used as test materials.The seeds were naturally air-dried to a moisture content of 8.36%and then stored at room temperature[(25±2)℃],4℃,-20℃,-70℃,respectively.Seed vigor index and inclusion index were determined at 0,60,120,180 days of storage.The fuzzy mathematics membership function value method was employed for comprehensive evaluation.The results showed that with the extension of storage time,the malondialdehyde content and relative conductivity of Camellia oleifera seeds generally increased gradually under all four temperature conditions,while the contents of soluble sugar,soluble protein and starch showed an overall decreasing trend,and the fat content fluctuated to varying degrees.Compared with 0 day of storage,at 180 days,the seed vigor indexes(malondialdehyde content and relative conductivity)and inclusion indexes(soluble sugar,soluble protein and starch content)were significantly different under the storage condition of(25±2)℃.Among them,the malondialdehyde content and relative conductivity increased by 199.38%and 104.09%,respectively,while the contents of soluble sugar,soluble protein,and starch decreased by 26.69%,47.95%and 31.00%,respectively.Under the storage condition of-70℃,the changes of each index were not significant(except soluble protein content).The malondialdehyde content and relative conductivity increased by 38.15%and 10.14%,respectively,while the soluble sugar,soluble protein and starch content decreased by 16.78%,36.24%and 6.40%,respectively.Through comprehensive evaluation and analysis,it was found that the quality of Camellia oleifera seeds under four storage temperatures was ranked as follows:-70℃>-20℃>4℃>(25±2)℃.In summary,the low temperature environment(-20℃,-70℃)was more conducive to maintaining the quality of Camellia oleifera seeds during 180 days of storage,while the storage effect at(25±2)℃was the worst.Combined with the cost of production practice,it is recommended to select-20℃as the storage temperature of Camellia oleifera seeds.