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Impact of Short Time Atmospheric Plasma Treatment on Onion Seeds

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Abstract

The paper presents the results of an experiment on the effect of cold plasma (He + O2 and He + Air) generated in a radio frequency cold atmospheric plasma jet on the process of germination of onion cv. Wolska (Allium cepa L.) seeds. In order to determine the impact of the gas flow on the seed surface, CFD simulations and Schlieren imaging were performed and surface characteristics were studied using a digital microscope. Plasma treatment of the seeds was carried out four times (2, 5, 10 and 15 s) with one control group. Pre-sowing plasma stimulation of seeds improved the germination capacity and germination energy for all tested groups in comparison to the control. The best germination capacity and energy were obtained for seeds stimulated with 10 s of plasma treatment. Analysis of the data showed a statistically significant impact of plasma treatment on the onion seed’s germination parameters. Plasma treatment did not induce significant changes on the seed surface, as microscope images showed but length of all plasma-treated seedlings increased in comparison to control.

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Funding

Information that explains whether and by whom the research was supported. This study was supported by LUT research fund, Polish-Slovak Bilateral Cooperation Programme (PlasmaBioAgro) PPN/BIL/2018/1/00065 + SK-PL-18-0090, NCN-M-Era.Net2, project no. UMO-2016/22/Z/ST8/00694- PNANO4BONE, KONNECT project, COST Action PlAgri CA19110 and CEEPUS CIII-AT-0063.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Electrical Engineering and Electrotechnologies, Lublin University of Technology, Lublin, Poland

    Piotr Terebun, Michał Kwiatkowski & Joanna Pawłat

  2. Department of Biological Bases of Food and Feed Technologies, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, Poland

    Agnieszka Starek

  3. Department of Engineering Physics, Polytechnique Montréal, Montreal, Canada

    Stephan Reuter

  4. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Jeju National University, Jeju, Republic of Korea

    Young Sun Mok

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  1. Piotr Terebun
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  2. Michał Kwiatkowski
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  3. Agnieszka Starek
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  4. Stephan Reuter
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  5. Young Sun Mok
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  6. Joanna Pawłat
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Correspondence to Agnieszka Starek or Joanna Pawłat.

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Terebun, P., Kwiatkowski, M., Starek, A. et al. Impact of Short Time Atmospheric Plasma Treatment on Onion Seeds. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 41, 559–571 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-020-10146-3

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