Soaking plasma processed chickpea ( Cicer arientinum ) cultivars

Cold plasma processing has been marched toward becoming one of the proven techno alternatives to thermal food preservation. It was found effective to cause positive alterations in the surface properties of food by etching. The effect of low‐pressure cold plasma on the percent moisture absorption of six chickpea cultivars, namely, Kripa , Virat , Vishal , Vijay , Digvijay , and Rajas , was studied. For plasma treatment, low‐pressure glow discharge plasma with bell‐jar symmetry was employed. The samples were treated with plasma at 40, 50, and 60 W each for 10, 15, and 20 min. These were soaked in distilled water and 1% sodium bicarbonate solution at room temperature for 8 h. The percent moisture absorption changed significantly ( p  < 0.05) with an increase in plasma power and treatment time. Kripa had the highest percent moisture absorption (102.07 ± 0.28) and (103.31 ± 0.68) at 60 W 20‐min treatment while Rajas had the lowest percent moisture absorption (78.57 ± 0.81) and (79.44 ± 0.26) at 40 W and 10‐min treatment in distilled water and 1% sodium bicarbonate solution soaking, respectively. The samples treated for 20 min with power 60 W showed higher moisture absorption for all the chickpea cultivars. The percent moisture absorption in control samples soaked in 1% sodium bicarbonate solution was higher than in distilled water. The same pattern did not repeat in the plasma‐treated samples. The findings in this research will be useful for designing the soaking process for different cultivars of plasma‐treated legumes.