Micro-greens or sprouts are commonly used in the diet of many cultures owing to their health benefits. In this work we use a non-chemical solution method to stimulate the germination and growth of seeds used for sprouting, based on non-thermal plasma discharge (NTP). Such a technology could represent an alternative not only for reducing the production costs for growing micro-greens but also as a pre-sowing method for slow germinating species or those under draught stress. To evaluate the efficiency of the treatments, Brassica oleracea and Lepidium sativum seeds were exposed to a non-thermal plasma discharge produced in atmospheric air in different conditions. The strongest modifications were recorded when the discharge was produced in a closed environment when the reactive species produced in air remained in high concentrations near the seeds. The garden cress exhibited stronger modifications, with a decreasing of the water contact angle of the seeds by up to about 14%, which means an increase of the hydrophilicity of the surface of the seeds. The stimulation of the growth was evaluated as an increase of the average stem length of (9 ± 0.4)% and of the root length of (38 ± 0.5)% as compared to sprouts grown from untreated seeds. This indicated that the reactive species were not only interacting with the surface of the seeds as proved by electron microscopy imaging but also penetrated inside the seeds, activating biological pathways that lead to the stimulation of growth in this case. A noticeable influence produced by the reactive species was also reflected in the biochemical results, where the analysis of the chlorophyll pigments indicated strong modifications, especially under the intensified action of the reactive species. The results prove an important contribution from the reactive species and show the possibility of using this technology to improve the growth of these micro-greens, reducing production time and even presenting the possibility of treating packaged seeds.

In this paper we present a review of the application of X-ray computed tomography in soil science, a modern technique for structural analysis. The quantification of internal soil structure is the key in understanding the processes that lead to its development. The current analytical and traditional methods for exploring soil structure do not fully cover the needs of the researchers, in order to characterize the soil system and its properties. In the last decades, X-ray computed tomography has provided a non-destructive means in order to observe and quantify soils in 3D. It has been used in researches regarding the spatial distribution of soil pores, bulk density, macropore network structure, layer detection, permeability, calculated fractal properties, solute breakthrough, root system development etc. Compared to other analysis methods, the short time requiered for a CT scan (within the order of minutes) and the accuracy of the data provided, recommend this technique for the characterization of soil systems.

Herbicide residue analysis has gained importance worldwide, mainly for food quality control to minimize potentially adverse impacts on human health. A Gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method for quantitative analysis of acetochlor and s-metolachlor in maize and soybean straw has been developed, validated and applied to analyze the residues of anilide herbicides. Straw material was dried, homogenized and extracted with a mixture of n-hexane and acetone by an accelerated solvent extraction method. Chromatographic separation of the target analytes was performed on an Agilent 7832 GC equipped with a mass spectrometer detector, a split-splitless injector and an HP-5 MS (5% phenylmethyl siloxane) capillary column (30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 µm). Under these parameters, the limit of detection (LOD) values were 0.2 ng g−1 for acetochlor and 0.07 ng g−1 for s-metolachlor, with average recoveries between 86% and 119.7%. The method was validated for acetochlor and s-metolachlor in maize and soybean straw at 0.5 and 0.01 mg kg −1. Furthermore, the final residues of the two herbicides in maize and soybean straw were below the maximum residue limit (MRL) at harvest time. The proposed method is suitable for routine analysis.

No abstract

Rapeseed (Brassica napus) is an important oilseed crop worldwide. In order to get the genetic similarity present in a set of oilseed rape cultivars, 32 cultivars have been analyzed at the DNA level by Random Amplified Polymorphic (RAPD) technique. RAPD analysis was performed with 8 decamer primers to produce reliable polymorphic DNA bands ranging in molecular weight from 238 -961 bp. A total of 72 polymorphic bands from 96 reproducible bands were obtained. Based on these data, genetic similarity (GS) was estimated between 0.608 ("Uspekh" versus "Libritta") and 0.731 ("Libritta" versus "Uspekh"). UPGMA cluster analysis carried out on these data indicates a good fit of the respective clusters to genetic similarity data. The correlation of cluster analyses to pedigree information and the impact on parental genotype selection has been taken into discussion.