STUDY REGARDING INFLUENCE OF MICROWAVE IRRADIATION ON CHLOROPHYLL CONTENT AT SOME BARLEY (HORDEUM VULGARE L.) GENOTYPES
Iuliana Creţescu, Rodica Căpriţă, Giancarla Velicevici, A. Căpriţă
Abstract
Chlorophyll is one of the major components of chloroplasts and represents a variable in assessing the physiological status and photosynthetic performance of plants. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the microwave irradiation effect on the chlorophyll content of Hordeum vulgare L. The chlorophyll content was determined at 14 days after the irradiation treatment, using the portable chlorophyll meter SPAD- 502 (Konica Minolta). We observed variations in the chlorophyll content when applying different power values of the radiations and different times of exposure. The chlorophyll content was lower for 720W irradiation power than for 400W, for all studied genotypes. The chlorophyll values ranged between 12.94 and 20.35 SPAD at irradiation time of 10s and between 17.26 and 20.87 SPAD for irradiation time of 20s. The chlorophyll content values in the control samples ranged between 19.94 and 22.26 SPAD. Experimental investigations of microwave irradiation on plant development may help to clarify the mechanisms of energy exchange in molecules and thus stimulation of plant development.
