# Applications of Plasma Produced with Electrical Discharges in Gases for Agriculture and Biomedicine
## 2 Plasma as a Medium for Application in Agriculture and Biomedicine
Such non-thermal and non-equilibrium discharges at atmospheric pressure most often include barrier dielectric discharges [18; 29; 60; 61; 62; 63], atmospheric pressure plasma jets APPJs [35; 62], and gliding arc GAD [25; 39; 40; 45; 51; 56]; these are currently the subject of advanced research in many scientific centres around the world. The antimicrobial agents generated in plasma, such as charged and excited molecules, reactive oxygen species (ROS), atomic oxygen (O), reactive forms of nitrogen (RNS), atomic nitrogen (N), nitric oxide (NO) and, in the case of electrical discharges with water admixtures, also hydroxyl ions (OH) and hydrogen peroxide (H\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{2}\)), can be used in agricultural and biomedical processes. Physical and chemical phenomena, such as etching processes, high-energy UV radiation, heat and alternating electric fields, as well as their role in processes of decontamination, sterilisation, surface treatment and modification and their influence on biomedical and agriculture objects, should also be considered, and this makes the subject of the application of plasma in these areas highly interdisciplinary. The high efficiency of plasma in decontamination, sterilisation and healing is due to, among others, the large selection of different types of plasma reactors that can be used in plasma medicine, the possibility of controlling their parameters to ensure the antimicrobial ability of plasma particles and easy access to narrow and closed spaces [34; 64; 77; 78]. Figure 1 presents how many parameters should be taken into consideration when optimising plasma processes for application in agriculture and biomedicine. We mention only the most important of them, such as technological gases, types of electric discharges and active particles, molecules, atoms, and free radicals produced in the plasma, both in the neutral and excited states, and ions. Other important issues are plasma treatment methods for agricultural and biomedical media; used solutions of plasma installations and their power supply systems, their costs efficiency, and, above all, safety for living organisms. Research works on the use of non-thermal plasma in technologies related to agriculture [14; 17; 19; 23; 28; 77] and biomedicine [72; 75; 76; 78; 79] are aimed at, inter alia:  
* Assessing the suitability and effectiveness of various types of electrical discharges for plasma generation, especially at atmospheric pressure. * Improving the process of generating electrons initiating the production of ions, oxygen and nitrogen radicals and other compounds useful in the processes of water, and soil treatment and in biomedicine. * Achieving the desired composition of the final gas mixture and a high degree of conversion of harmful compounds by adding admixtures and catalysts (steam, ammonia). * Minimising energy consumption. * Matching the electric power source to the plasma reactor, including solar energy [21; 67; 80; 81; 82]. Table 1 presents a comparison of thermal and non-thermal plasma in terms of their properties, while Table 2 presents the most commonly tested and practically used types of plasma reactors with electrical discharges for the production of thermal and non-thermal plasma, their applications, and power supply systems, which determine their application on an industrial scale.