The inhibitory effect of volume dielectric barrier discharge on phytopathogenic fungi

The study evaluated the inhibitory effect of cold plasma on fungal conidial germination using a square wave modulated plasma with a duty cycle of 20% at atmospheric pressure. The efficacy of the treatment was influenced by different factors such as total treatment time, applied voltage, medium composition and different cellular structure of the analysed fungi. The inhibitory effect increased with exposure time and decreased with fungal complexity. The uniformity of the plasma and agarized medium were also important factors. Complete inhibition of conidial germination was achieved for all tested species at different treatment times.