Measuring the Effectiveness of Cold Plasma in Sterilizing Seeds and Detecting the Extent of Genetic Effects

Abstract

Given that non-thermal plasma has interesting prospects, non-thermal processes (mainly used for the inactivation of microorganisms and the sterilization of seeds) have attracted great interest. Positive results of cold plasma include better morphological and functional properties, higher germination, and removal of microorganisms. This has ignited investigation in a variety of fields, with particular emphasis on determining genetic markers associated with germination of sterilized seeds and seed sterilization. This paper highlights several benefits of using cold plasma on different food materials including wheat flour. Improved functionality, modified color attributes, morphological changes, and reduced contents of anti-nutritional compounds are major positive aspects. Processes like starch granule shearing are described in the article, as well as which structural and physical properties of food fibres are enhanced by these treatments. While there are the challenges of dealing with regulatory and scale-up issues to enable commercialization of this technology, the possibility of making superior quality products using this method is exciting.