Effect of presoaking on the germination of Psoralea corylifolia Linn. Mudasir Qadir and Fatima Khan* Department of Botany, Government Science & Commerce College, Benazeer Bhopal-462013 (India) Indian J. Applied & Pure Bio. Vol. 32(1), 53-57 (2017). Abstract In the present investigation, seeds of Psoralea corylifolia Linn. were subjected to hot water pre-treatment to achieve early germination by breaking dormancy. It was found that, on 7th day of sowing, 12% germination was achieved in case of seeds kept as control, 32% germination in case of seeds which were presoaked for 48 hours and 28% germination was found in case of seeds presoaked for 72 hours respectively whereas, 82% germination was recorded in case of seeds which were presoaked for 24 hours and prewashed with hot water (34 o C). *Present address: Govt. College, Nasrullah Ganj M.P. (India). In nature, the seeds of some plants easily germinate after sowing but the seeds of a number of plants do not germinate easily and exhibit dormancy for varying period of time. The dormancy may be due to internal factors such as; impermeability of seed coats to moisture and oxygen, immaturity of the embryo, dominance of germinating inhibitors in seeds and testa barrier, and due to external factors such as; unavailability of water, unavailability of oxygen, inappropriate temperature, and in some seeds due to unavailability of light. Certain plants may immediately germinate after the harvest, it can be best exemplified by the seeds of Pisum sativum, which sometimes germinate in the fruit itself which is still on the plant, a phenomenon known as vivipary. However, sometimes the dormancy period is very prolonged and can take months together for germination. This is true for the seeds of Malus domestica which has a hard seed coat and Entada gigas which has a very thick seed coat and do not germinate easily. In the present study, seeds of Malus domestica were tested for their germination potential and shortening of dormancy period. Initial studies showed that the seeds are dormant and there is no germination even after one weak of sowing. Therefore, it was thought imperative to undertake this investigation to find out the substance that can break the dormancy of Malus domestica seeds. The seeds were subjected to acid scarification (H 2 SO 4 ) and mechanical scarification (by making cuts on the seed coats by knives). The best treatment among these was found to be mechanical scarification (by making cuts on the seed coats by knives).