3.1. Seed water content analysis
Fresh seeds water content was 49.5% when harvested (Fig. 1).
This decreased rapidly to 31.2% and 22% when dried over silica
gel for 1 h and 2 h, respectively. Seed water content continued to
decrease slowly after 4 h (Fig. 1) before reaching 1.87% after 24 h.
Similarly, seed water content was down to 24.8% after air-drying
for 24 h under laboratory conditions. The desiccation time using
silica gel was faster than air-drying in laboratory conditions.