Study on the effect of plasma drying and sterilization of pepper seeds

Abstract

Drying and sterilization are the main aspects to ensure the quality of pepper seeds, inhibit microbial growth and extend the storage cycle. Plasma can achieve rapid drying and efficient sterilization of materials, becoming a new non-thermal drying technology with potential. In this paper, an experimental study on the drying and sterilization of pepper seeds was carried out using discharge plasma. The effects of discharge plasma on the drying rate, surface sterilization effect and growth characteristics of treated seeds were analyzed. The results showed that discharge plasma significantly increased the drying rate of pepper seeds compared with natural drying. After the plasma-enhanced sterilization treatment, no scab pathogens were found on the seed surface. In addition, the results of germination experiments showed that plasma treatment did not negatively affect the growth of pepper seeds compared to untreated seeds.

Keywords:

• Discharge plasma
• pepper seeds
• drying and sterilization effect
• percentage of germination
• low-field NMR

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Key R&D Program of Shaanxi Province (Grant Nos. 2021GXLH-Z-090, 2021NY-039) and the Key R&D Program of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2018B020239001).

Disclosure of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.