Research Paper: Germination Percentage Enhancement of Cumin Seed by Cold Plasma Treatment

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of cold plasma radiation on the percentage, velocity, average germination per day, germination index, and prose and growth of green cumin roots. A factorial experiment was performed in a randomized design in 5 repetitions. Test factors included pretreatment of cold plasma irradiation time at 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 minutes by 7 and 14 kV and 800 Hz plasma generators. The results of this work showed that the treatment time and the applied voltage of cold plasma significantly affect the percentage, velocity, average of germination per a day, germination index, and prose and root of the green cumin seed. Among all treatments, a dose of treatment with time of 6 minutes at a peak voltage of 14 kV had the greatest effect on the referred characteristics, except increasing root in which plasma treatment with a dose of 3 minutes has the most effect. Cold plasma has been generated with a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is a hand-made and designed in on desk dimensions, in which air is used as plasma active gas.

Keywords

• cold (non-thermal) plasma
• dielectric barrier discharge (dbd)
• green cumin
• seed germination
• medical plants