Seed Quality Enhancement through Plasma Treatment: A Review Nalwa Cherry*, Thakur Ashok K. Department of Seed Science and Technology, Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan-173 230, India *E-mail: cherrynalwa.123.cn@gmail.com
Online published on 30 August, 2019. Abstract Improving the performance of seed over its inherent capacity is one of the major areas of research in seed science and technology. There are numerous post-harvest seed enhancement techniques employed to enhance seed quality. Cold plasma treatment is one such recent technique. There are different ways to generate plasma viz., glow discharge, dielectric barrier discharge from various gasses like air, O2. On exposure of seed to plasma so generated, the plasma interacts with the seed surface altering the seed surface topography and biochemical and physical properties. These alterations, in general change the behaviour of seed during the initial phase of the germination resulting in remarkable changes in the performance of seed and crop in later stages. The plasma can be generated in many ways however for seed treatment the glow discharge method is commonly used due to its properties like seed quality improvement, seed enhancement and decontamination of pathogens present on seed coat surface. Being a post-harvest factor in the seed quality, it mainly improves the physiological and health components of the seed quality. Plasma treatment has been successfully applied in agriculture for seed quality improvement, seed enhancement and pathogenic micro-organisms inactivation and has shown encouraging results in many crops, however, commercial application of this technology is yet to be standardized. Top Keywords Cold plasma treatment, Seed germination, Surface modification, Plant growth. Top |