Plasma seed priming in green cumin, physiological and developmental aspect

Green cumin is an herbaceous, annual, delicate, and aromatic plant in the family Apiaceae, also known with other names such as " kammun " and "senut", which is among the oldest and most economical as well as the second most popular medicinal plants after black pepper. In this study, pretreatment of cumin seed was studied with plasma technology without using chemicals through damage to seed for germination. To this end, cumin seeds were examined in a control group (no treatment) and treatment with cold plasma for 5 and 10 minutes in other groups. The physiological activities of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POX), and superoxidase (SOD), as well as malondialdehyde and soluble sugars were studied in the samples. According to the results, mean growth of seeds in 5 min plasma treatment was higher than the control and 10 min exposure groups. Mean activities of CAT, POX, SOD, and soluble sugars were higher in plants obtained from 5 min plasma irradiation than the control and 10 min plasma treatment. It can be concluded that treatment of cumin seeds with plasma increases SOD and CAT antioxidant enzymes activities. Besides, seed treatment for 5 minutes led to the best results