Surface treatment by low-temperature plasma has a great potential in a wide range of applications in many industries and research fields, such as material engineering, automobile industry, ecology, medicine, and agriculture. The application of plasma treatments is relatively new and not very common in agriculture. Protecting cereal seeds against some fungal diseases is one of the plasma applications in agriculture. We tested the possibility of decreased mycotoxin concentration by low pressure and atmospheric pressure plasmas. In addition, we investigated the effects of plasma treatment on nutritive values of the seeds because of their usage as domestic animal feed. The influence on seed germination was also studied and are also reported here.

This work deals with the possibility of elimination of common occuring mycotoxins deoxynivalenol (DON) and its plant metabolite deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside (D3G) from malting barley and malt by treatment of low-temperature plasma discharge. Barley seed was treated with a fungicide, entomopathogenic and mycoparasitic fungi and the low-temperature plasma discharge of Gliding Arc type, or their combination. Samples of harvested barley were treated with plasma discharge and analyzed for presence of mycotoxins. Only low DON and D3G concentration levels were detected (maximal values were 48.2 µg/kg and 30.2 µg/kg for DON and D3G, resp.), after plasma treatment mycotoxin content decreased onto the levels near limit of quantification. The results suggest that low-temperature Gliding Arc plasma discharge may contribute to reduction of the content of the mycotoxins in harvested barley grains.