Abstract:
Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma treatment has emerged as a promising potential seed quality
enhancement method over recent years. This study focuses on the effect of atmospheric pressure plasma
treatment on seed germination and growth of Long Bean-KPN (Vigna unguiculata L.) seeds under labora tory conditions. In this study, the Long Bean seeds were exposed to a dry air non-thermal atmospheric
pressure plasma for different periods between 4 and 10 min to study its effect on seed germination
and growth behavior. It was observed that Germination percentage and Seed Vigor Index were negatively
affected by plasma treatment for more than 6 min. The performance of seeds treated for 4 min had a
slight improvement in germination over the control specimen, while it showed a significant improve ment in average seed vigor index. The study confirmed that non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma
treatment can be stimulatory for seed germination and growth of Vigna unguiculate L. seeds if exposed
to plasma for periods less than 4 min and it can be inhibitory for the purpose if exposure time exceeds
6 min.
Copyright 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer ence on Applied Research and Engineering 2021
