## 3 Results and Discussion
### Effect of ACP Treatment on Germination of Barley Grains  
The effect of ACP on germination parameters of barley was time-dependent (Table 7). The grains treated for 6 min by ACP had the highest germination percentage (93.3%). ACP treatment for 1 and 10 min decreased some of the germination parameters such as root length and root surface area, shoot length, and the number of roots compared to the untreated control. However, the 6 min ACP treatment improved some of the germination parameters, but not significantly (\(p\geq 0.05\)) (i.e, the average root diameter, root volume, and the germination percentage) (Figure 4). Root growth parameters are important in exploiting the soil and uptake of the minerals, especially for less mobile nutrients. Root growth affects vigorous shoot growth and crop yield, especially in low nutrient soils [49]. ACP treatment can affect the root growth and, as a result, the ability of plants to explore soil and uptake water and nutrients will be changed [50]. Previous research reported that ACP treatment impacted the germination rate and germination parameters of several grain crops [12; 13; 46]. A number of theories reported that the changes in the germination rate of the ACP treated grains could be related to: (1) change in water absorption of the grains, (2) change in their surface characteristics as a result of chemical reaction of the reactive species with the seed surface, (3) or the physical energy deposition of plasma exposure on grains, (4) changes in the biological reactions of the grains, (5) change in the internal functional metabolites such as gamma-aminobutyric acid, and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazily activity [12], (6) alterations in protein structure, and (7) stimulation of the natural signal (i.e., stimulation of growth factor, opening the calcium channel) [51]. The attack of oxygen radicals and bombardment by low energy ions may induce seed coat erosion and contribute to a change in germination [51]. Previous studies reported that the germination parameters were influenced based on the plasma treatment time and optimum plasma time should be considered for each plant species [51; 52; 53]. In this study, we determined that the ACP treatment for 6 min was able to reduce almost half of the DON on the barley grains and it did not show any significant (\(p\geq 0.05\)) adverse effects on germination parameters of barley. However, to fully understand the biological effects of ACP species on germination, the characteristics of each type of plasma, and the mechanisms between plasma species and each biomolecule should be studied. This could be quite challenging due to the inconstant state of ACP, diversity of target species in the plant, and the complexity of biomolecular response. A systematic approach for investigating the simple biomolecules and complex tissues to necessary to be able to realize the biological responses between plasma species and biomolecules. Overall, these results lay the foundation for future research that can optimize ACP treatment based on DON degradation, germination rate, and quality analysis.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Treatment** & **N2 (\%)** & **Protein (\%)** & **Carbon (\%)** & \(\beta\)**-Glucan (\%)** & **MC (g** \\  & & & & & **Water/100 g** \\  & & & & & **Sample)** \\ \hline Control & 1.71 \(\pm\) 0.02 a & 10.68 \(\pm\) 0.15 a & 44.1 \(\pm\) 0.2 a & 3.96 \(\pm\) 0.14 a & 9.7 \(\pm\) 0.1 a \\
6 min ACP & 1.62 \(\pm\) 0.05 a & 10.39 \(\pm\) 0.33 a & 44.07 \(\pm\) 0.21 a & 3.98 \(\pm\) 0.08 a & 9.6 \(\pm\) 0.0 a \\
10 min ACP & 1.64 \(\pm\) 0.05 a & 10.26 \(\pm\) 0.29 a & 43.93 \(\pm\) 0.55 a & 4.23 \(\pm\) 0.25 a & 9.4 \(\pm\) 0.2 a \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Values with different letters in the same column are significantly different (\(p<0.05\), \(n=3\)).  
\end{table}
Table 6: Effect of ACP treatment on quality parameters of barley grains.