SHORT COMMUNICATION Improvement in Seed Germination Through Pre-treatments in Timur (Zanthoxylum armatum DC.): A Plant with High Medicinal, Economical and Ecological Importance Vikas Yadav Patade 1 • Kundan Kumar 1 • Anand Kumar Gupta 1 • Atul Grover 2 • Prem Singh Negi 1 • Sanjai Kumar Dwivedi 2 Received: 19 July 2017 / Revised: 5 November 2019 / Accepted: 6 November 2019 Ó The National Academy of Sciences, India 2019 Abstract Timur (Zanthoxylum armatum DC.) also known as toothache tree or winged prickly ash is an important large thorny wild shrub of Rutaceae family. Owing to its high medicinal properties, the plant population is rapidly depleting due to the unsustainable premature harvesting from open-access forests. Because of which the plant species can become endangered or rare in the absence of conservation measures through its mass propagation. Seed propagation in Timur is a time consuming and tedious process due to the requirement for stratification. Here, we report the effect of different seed pre-treatments including water soaking, potassium nitrate (300 mM), sodium chlo- ride (75 mM) and concentrated sulfuric acid treatments followed by water soaking on seed germination in Timur. Seed pre-treatment with acid for 120 min resulted in rapid and synchronous seed germination whereas the control, water-soaked, potassium nitrate or sodium chloride-treated seeds failed to germinate during the observation period of 30 days. The plantlets from acid-treated seeds further established successfully. Thus, the results of the present study may be applicable in large-scale simple and low-cost mass propagation of the plant as a source of medicines and other purposes. Keywords Timur Á Dormancy Á Seed pre-treatment Á Germination Timur (Zanthoxylum armatum DC.) (Fam Rutaceae) also known as toothache tree or winged prickly ash is an important shrub or small tree of high medicinal, econom- ical as well as ecological importance. Besides, Timur has high cultural and aromatic values and considered as a sacred species by the local people. Its distribution is reported in the warmer valleys of the Himalaya (1000–2100 m amsl), Eastern Ghats (1200 m amsl) and the lesser north eastern Himalayan regions of India [1]. The extracts from its plant parts are reported to have anti-ox- idative, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, insecticidal, hepato-protective, anti-tumor, immuno-modulatory and other pharmacological activities [1, 2]. Being spiny, berry harvesting from the plant is difficult and inefficient; therefore, often branches are lopped off to facilitate the collection, which subsequently affect the plant productiv- ity. Besides, whole plant or branches before attaining maturity are also harvested for fencing the farmland, which also adversely affect the natural regeneration of the spe- cies. Consequently, the plant population is rapidly deplet- ing from the open-access forests due to the non-scientific excessive harvesting for berries, climate change and insufficient natural regeneration. This unsustainable har- vesting is posing a tremendous threat to its existing pop- ulations and regeneration in the wild due to which the plant species can become endangered or rare in the absence of long-term conservation measures through its mass propa- gation [3, 4]. Seed propagation in Timur is tedious as it requires cold stratification or scarification. The stored seeds may require up to 3 months cold stratification and might take another year or longer for germination. Besides, the seeds being rich in oil content tend to have lesser seed viability. Therefore, pre-sowing treatments are required for rapid and synchronous germination in Timur. Therefore, the present study was designed to study the effect of & Vikas Yadav Patade patade@diber.drdo.in 1 Defence Institute of Bio-Energy Research Field Station, Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, India 2 Defence Institute of Bio-Energy Research, Haldwani, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India 123 Natl. Acad. Sci. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40009-019-00851-9