Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Pearl Millet Seed Surface Modification and Improved Germination by Non-thermal Plasma Discharge: Understanding the Role of Reactive Species

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this work, we investigated the impacts of atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), i.e., plasma treatment, on pearl millet seeds germination and plant growth. The effect of plasma discharge on water activation, by introducing the reactive species, was explored. We evidenced that about 30 min plasma treated pearl millet seeds exhibited 20% higher germination rate than the control seed watered with tap water. The HR-SEM study revealed that the plasma treatment increased the roughness and FTIR study showed that new oxygen functional groups were introduced on the seed surface. Moreover, it was observed that the water contact angle decreased for plasma treated seeds (50%) and the water uptake also increased considerably as compared to control seeds. These findings indicate that the seed surface has turned more hydrophilic after plasma treatment. A cylindrical double dielectric barrier discharge (D-DBD) reactor was employed for water activation, and 30 min of treatment under air has decreased the pH of deionized water from 7.4 to 4.5 and produced about 1.78 ppm of nitrate (NO3−) and 4.2 ppm of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Interestingly, the plasma activated water (PAW) improved the pearl millet seed germination by 30% (after 24 h of sowing) and plant growth as compared to tap water and deionized water. Remarkably, when PAW and plasma-treated seeds were combined, a beneficial impact in seed germination (95 ± 2%) and seedling growth have been evidenced owing to synergistic effect. We evidenced that among the long-lived species in PAW, NO3− enhanced the seed germination and plant growth under similar conditions. These findings demonstrate that the proposed cold plasma reactors could be utilized to boost seed germination and plant growth.Please confirm if the author names are presented accurately and in the correct sequence (given name, middle name/initial, family name). Author 4 Given name: [Amine Aymen] Last name [Assadi]. Also, kindly confirm the details in the metadata are correct.Yes, all author names are correctly editted. 

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

Essential data is provided in the supplementary material, while additional information can be made available upon a reasonable request.

References

  1. Khatami S, Ahmadinia A (2018) Increased germination and growth rates of pea and Zucchini seed by FSG plasma. J Theor Appl Phys 12:33–38

    Google Scholar 

  2. Rani S, Singh R, Sehrawat R, Kaur BP, Upadhyay A (2018) Pearl millet processing: a review. Nutr Food Sci 48(1):30–44

    Google Scholar 

  3. Lokeswari R, Sharanyakanth PS, Jaspin S, Mahendran R (2021) Cold plasma effects on changes in physical, nutritional, hydration, and pasting properties of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum). IEEE Trans Plasma Sci 49(5):1745–1751

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Varshney RK, Shi C, Thudi M, Mariac C, Wallace J, Qi P, Zhang H, Zhao Y, Wang X, Rathore A, Srivastava RK (2017) Pearl millet genome sequence provides a resource to improve agronomic traits in arid environments. Nat Biotechnol 35(10):969–976

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Radhouane L (2013) Agronomic and physiological responses of pearl millet ecotype (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br) to saline irrigation. Emir J Food Agric 109–116

  6. Adhikari B, Adhikari M, Park G (2020) The effects of plasma on plant growth, development, and sustainability. Appl Sci 10(17):6045

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Randeniya LK, de Groot GJ (2015) Non-thermal plasma treatment of agricultural seeds for stimulation of germination, removal of surface contamination and other benefits: a review. Plasma Process Polym 12(7):608–623

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Šerá B, Scholtz V, Jirešová J, Khun J, Julák J, Šerý M (2021) Effects of non-thermal plasma treatment on seed germination and early growth of leguminous plants—A review. Plants 10(8):1616

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Leti LI, Gerber IC, Mihaila I, Galan PM, Strajeru S, Petrescu DE, Cimpeanu MM, Topala I, Gorgan DL (2022) The modulatory effects of non-thermal plasma on seed’s morphology, germination and genetics—a review. Plants 11(16):2181

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Molina R, Lalueza A, López-Santos C, Ghobeira R, Cools P, Morent R, De Geyter N, González-Elipe AR (2021) Physicochemical surface analysis and germination at different irrigation conditions of DBD plasma-treated wheat seeds. Plasma Process Polym 18(1):2000086

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Than HA, Pham TH, Nguyen DK, Pham TH, Khacef A (2021) Non-thermal plasma activated water for increasing germination and plant growth of Lactuca sativa L. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 8:1–7

    Google Scholar 

  12. Šerá B, Gajdová I, Černák M, Gavril B, Hnatiuc E, Kováčik D, Kříha V, Sláma J, Šerý M, Špatenka P (2012) How various plasma sources may affect seed germination and growth. In: 2012 13th international conference on optimization of electrical and electronic equipment (OPTIM). IEEE, pp 1365–1370

  13. Waskow A, Howling A, Furno I (2021) Mechanisms of plasma-seed treatments as a potential seed processing technology. Front Phys 14(9):617345

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kumar A, Škoro N, Gernjak W, Povrenović D, Puač N (2022) Direct and indirect treatment of organic dye (Acid blue 25) solutions by using cold atmospheric plasma jet. Front Phys 15(10):835635

    Google Scholar 

  15. Puač N, Gherardi M, Shiratani M (2018) Plasma agriculture: a rapidly emerging field. Plasma Process Polym 15(2):1700174

    Google Scholar 

  16. Bradu C, Kutasi K, Magureanu M, Puač N, Živković S (2020) Reactive nitrogen species in plasma-activated water: generation, chemistry and application in agriculture. J Phys D Appl Phys 53(22):223001

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Kučerová K, Henselová M, Slováková Ľ, Bačovčinová M, Hensel K (2021) Effect of plasma activated water, hydrogen peroxide, and nitrates on lettuce growth and its physiological parameters. Appl Sci 11(5):1985

    Google Scholar 

  18. Liu K, Liu ST, Ran CF (2020) The Effect of air-water-plasma-jet-activated water on Penicillium: the reaction of HNO2 and H2O2 under acidic condition. Front Phys 30(8):242

    Google Scholar 

  19. Shelar A, Singh AV, Dietrich P, Maharjan RS, Thissen A, Didwal PN, Shinde M, Laux P, Luch A, Mathe V, Jahnke T (2022) Emerging cold plasma treatment and machine learning prospects for seed priming: a step towards sustainable food production. RSC Adv 12(17):10467–10488

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Sera B, Spatenka P, Sery M, Vrchotova N, Hruskova I (2010) Influence of plasma treatment on wheat and oat germination and early growth. IEEE Trans Plasma Sci 38(10):2963–2968

    Google Scholar 

  21. Arc E, Galland M, Godin B, Cueff G, Rajjou L (2013) Nitric oxide implication in the control of seed dormancy and germination. Front Plant Sci 19(4):346

    Google Scholar 

  22. Ji SH, Ki SH, Kang MH, Choi JS, Park Y, Oh J, Kim SB, Yoo SJ, Choi EH, Park G (2018) Characterization of physical and biochemical changes in plasma treated spinach seed during germination. J Phys D Appl Phys 51:145205

    Google Scholar 

  23. Ling L, Jiafeng J, Jiangang L, Minchong S, Xin H, Hanliang S, Yuanhua D (2014) Effects of cold plasma treatment on seed germination and seedling growth of soybean. Sci Rep 4(1):5859

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Fan L, Liu X, Ma Y, Xiang Q (2020) Effects of plasma-activated water treatment on seed germination and growth of mung bean sprouts. J Taibah Univ Sci 14(1):823–830

    Google Scholar 

  25. Suarasan I, Ghizdavu L, Ghizdavu I, Budu S, Dascalescu L (2002) Experimental characterization of multi-point corona discharge devices for direct ozonization of liquids. J Electrostat 54(2):207–214

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Chasanah U, Yulianto E, Zain AZ, Sasmita E, Restiwijaya M, Kinandana AW, Arianto F, Nur M (2019) Evaluation of titration method on determination of ozone concentration produced by dielectric barrier discharge plasma (DBDP) technology. In: Journal of physics: conference series, vol 1153. IOP Publishing, p 012086

  27. Nerdy N, Putra ED (2018) Spectrophotometric method for determination of nitrite and nitrate levels in broccoli and cauliflower with different fertilization treatment. Orient J Chem 34(6):2983

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Corella Puertas E, Dzafic A, Coulombe S (2020) Investigation of the electrode erosion in pin-to-liquid discharges and its influence on reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in plasma-activated water. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 40:145–167

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Groele J, Foster J (2019) Hydrogen peroxide interference in chemical oxygen demand assessments of plasma treated waters. Plasma 2(3):294–302

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Ritchie RJ (2006) Consistent sets of spectrophotometric chlorophyll equations for acetone, methanol and ethanol solvents. Photosynth Res 89:27–41

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Wintermans JF, De Mots AS (1965) Spectrophotometric characteristics of chlorophylls a and b and their phenophytins in ethanol. Biochim Biophys Acta (BBA) Biophys Incl Photosynth 109(2):448–453

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Kinandana AW, Yulianto E, Prakoso AD, Faruq A, Qusnudin A, Hendra M, Sasmita E, Restiwijaya M, Pratiwi SH, Arianto F, Nur M (2019) The comparison of ozone production with dielectric barrier discharge plasma reactors series and parallel at atmospheric pressure. In: Journal of physics: conference series, vol 1217. IOP Publishing, p 012010

  33. Sivachandiran L, Ahmed K (2017) Enhanced seed germination and plant growth by atmospheric pressure cold air plasma: combined effect of seed and water treatment. RSC Adv 7(4):1822–1832

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. El Shaer M, Abdel-azim M, El-welily H, Hussein Y, Abdelghani A, Zaki A, Mobasher M (2023) Effects of DBD direct air plasma and gliding arc indirect plasma activated mist on germination, and physiological parameters of rice seeds

  35. Hussain G, Haydar S (2019) Exploring potential of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and black-eyed pea (Vigna unguiculata. subsp unguiculata) as bio-coagulants for water treatment. Desalin Water Treat 143:184–191

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Yadav M, Rengasamy RS, Gupta D (2019) Characterization of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) waste. Carbohydr Polym 212:160–168

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Ribeiro PL, Campos MI, Druzian JI (2017) Novel extracellular polymeric substances produced by Cupriavidus necator IPT 027 grown on glucose and crude glycerol originated from biodiesel. Polym Adv Technol 28:549–556

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Mishra A, Jha B (2009) Isolation and characterization of extracellular polymeric substances from micro-algae Dunaliella salina under salt stress. Bioresour Technol 100(13):3382–3386

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Cui D, Yin Y, Wang J, Wang Z, Ding H, Ma R, Jiao Z (2019) Research on the physio-biochemical mechanism of non-thermal plasma-regulated seed germination and early seedling development in Arabidopsis. Front Plant Sci 10:1322

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  40. Butscher D, Van Loon H, Waskow A, von Rohr PR, Schuppler M (2016) Plasma inactivation of microorganisms on sprout seeds in a dielectric barrier discharge. Int J Food Microbiol 5(238):222–232

    Google Scholar 

  41. Varnagiris S, Vilimaite S, Mikelionyte I, Urbonavicius M, Tuckute S, Milcius D (2020) The combination of simultaneous plasma treatment with mg nanoparticles deposition technique for better mung bean seeds germination. Processes 8(12):1575

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Guragain RP, Baniya HB, Dhungana S, Chhetri GK, Sedhai B, Basnet N, Shakya A, Pandey BP, Pradhan SP, Joshi UM, Subedi DP (2021) Effect of plasma treatment on the seed germination and seedling growth of radish (Raphanus sativus). Plasma Sci Technol 24(1):015502

    Google Scholar 

  43. Gao X, Zhang A, Héroux P, Sand W, Sun Z, Zhan J, Wang C, Hao S, Li Z, Li Z, Guo Y (2019) Effect of dielectric barrier discharge cold plasma on pea seed growth. J Agric Food Chem 67(39):10813–10822

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Bormashenko E, Grynyov R, Bormashenko Y, Drori E (2012) Cold radiofrequency plasma treatment modifies wettability and germination speed of plant seeds. Sci Rep 2(1):741

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  45. Gorbanev Y, Privat-Maldonado A, Bogaerts A (2018) Analysis of short-lived reactive species in plasma–air–water systems: the dos and the do nots. Anal Chem 90:13151–13158

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Mentheour R, Machala Z (2022) Coupled antibacterial effects of plasma-activated water and pulsed electric field. Front Phys 10:895813

    Google Scholar 

  47. Raj A, Gupta A, Gupta N, Bhagyawant SS (2023) Effect of water TDS, on the growth of plant (Phaseolus vulgaris). Int J Plant Soil Sci 35(12):131–136

    Google Scholar 

  48. Fleischer WE (1935) The relation between chlorophyll content and rate of photosynthesis. J Gen Physiol 18(4):573–597

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  49. Grusak, M. A. Plant macro‐and micronutrient minerals. e LS (2001).

  50. Buchanan-Wollaston V (1997) The molecular biology of leaf senescence. J Exp Bot 48(2):181–199

    Google Scholar 

  51. Wu Z, Luo J, Han Y, Hua Y, Guan C, Zhang Z (2019) Low nitrogen enhances nitrogen use efficiency by triggering NO3– uptake and its long-distance translocation. J Agric Food Chem 67(24):6736–6747

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  52. Gomes MP, Garcia QS (2013) Reactive oxygen species and seed germination. Biologia 68:351–357

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  53. Maxime G, Aymen Amine A, Abdelkrim B, Dominique W (2014) Removal of gas-phase ammonia and hydrogen sulfide using photocatalysis, nonthermal plasma, and combined plasma and photocatalysis at pilot scale. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21:13127–13137

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  54. Assadi AA, Bouzaza A, Wolbert D (2016) Comparative study between laboratory and large pilot scales for VOC’s removal from gas streams in continuous flow surface discharge plasma. Chem Eng Res Des 106:308–314

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge SRMIST for the high-resolution scanning electron microscope (HRSEM) facility. We acknowledge Nanotechnology Research Centre (NRC) and SRMIST for providing the research facilities.

Funding

The authors greatly acknowledge the financial support of the Science & Engineering Research Board, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India (SERB, File No. ECR/2016/001457).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Plasma Chemistry and Physics (LPCP), Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Chengalpattu District, Tamil Nadu, 603203, India

    Subash Mohandoss, Harshini Mohan, Natarajan Balasubramaniyan & Sivachandiran Loganathan

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Center for Air and Aquatic Resources Engineering and Science, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, 13699, USA

    Sivachandiran Loganathan

  3. College of Engineering, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, IMSIU, Riyadh, 11432, Saudi Arabia

    Amine Aymen Assadi

  4. École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes, Univ Rennes, 11 Allée de Beaulieu, CS 50837, 35708, Rennes Cedex 7, France

    Amine Aymen Assadi

Authors
  1. Subash Mohandoss
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Harshini Mohan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Natarajan Balasubramaniyan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Amine Aymen Assadi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Sivachandiran Loganathan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

SM and HM designed experiments, drafted the manuscript and figures. NB and AAA edited and refined this manuscript. SL conceived, designed, drafted, and edited the manuscript. All authors contributed to the discussions.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sivachandiran Loganathan.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Ethical Approval

Not applicable.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 3562 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mohandoss, S., Mohan, H., Balasubramaniyan, N. et al. Pearl Millet Seed Surface Modification and Improved Germination by Non-thermal Plasma Discharge: Understanding the Role of Reactive Species. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 44, 1031–1051 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-024-10460-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-024-10460-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation