Demand for medicinal plants puts their natural habitats in danger due to over harvesting; hence their domestication is needed. However, seed dormancy can be a problem in their cultivation. Therefore, seeds of one hundred species from 36 families were collected from their natural habitats in Southern Iran (Kerman province) in 2013 to assess their germination. Germination tests were performed on four replications of 25 seeds in H 2O and then dormancy breaking treatments (scarification, H 2SO 4, GA 3, KNO 3 and pre-chilling) were applied on the species that had germination below 80% in H 2O. Seeds of 27 species (e.g. Ocimum basilicum and Salvia macrosiphon) had high germination (over 80%) in H 2O. Dormancy breaking treatments were effective on 64 species (e.g. Satureja hortensis and Ziziphora tenuior) out of 73 species where germination increased from below 10 to over 90%. In 54 species GA 3, KNO 3 and prechilling treatments were effective indicating the possibility of physiological dormancy in the seeds of the majority species

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