Zn fortification and lipids modifications in mustard seeds treating with next gen plasma technology

Mustard (Brassica alba L.) oil is widely used edible oil in the Indian subcontinent. Its use is restricted in many countries because of the presence of some unsaturated fatty acids (USFA) such as erucic acid that are responsible for myocardial lipidosis and heart disease. Deficiency of Zn in plants indirectly affects in maintaining the ratio of SFA (saturated fatty acid) and USFA in mustard oil. In this work, mustard seeds, submerged in ZnSO₄-H₂O solution treated with multi-tube air bubble discharge plasma jet for 10-, 20-, 30, and 40 min under the effect of magnetic field. Treated and control seeds were sown in the field. In addition, plasma processed water (PPW) was applied to the plants developed from the plasma treated seeds. Different growth characteristics, enzymatic activities, nutritional composition and fatty acids were studied. The findings show that the plant length (PL), stem diameter (SD), dry weight (DW), antioxidant enzymes, nutritional composition and yield were improved. Several fatty acids including 9,12-octadecadienoic, hexadecanoic acid, and octadecanoic acid were reduced, but the beneficial fatty acids such as 15-tetracosenoic acid, cis-11,14-eicosadienoic acid and 13-docosenamide were enhanced in the mustard oil. Besides, the highest yield was optimized where seeds were treated for 30- min in combination with six times PPW foliar spray. In comparison to control, mustard yield was increased by 60%.