eng Science and Education Publishing Journal of Food and Nutrition Research 2333-1240 2014-11-20 2 12 946 951 10.12691/jfnr-2-12-14 JFNR201421214 article Phumon Sookwong phumon.s@cmu.ac.th 1 Sittidet Yodpitak 1 Jenjira Doungkaew 1 Jaruwan Jurithayo 1 Dheerawan Boonyawan 2 Sugunya Mahatheeranont 2 3 Rice Chemistry Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand Plasma and Beam Physics Research Facility, Department of Physics and Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand This is the first study to apply plasma technology for improving nutrition value of cereal products. Cold plasma, a mixture of oxygen and argon plasma, was applied to rice seeds before pre-germination process. Plasma condition of 10 watts, 5 seconds, and 5 millimeters distance and 10 watts, 5 seconds, and 8 millimeters distance created high germination rates of pre-germinated brown rice. The latter conditions gave the grains with longer roots and bodies. Plasma treatment could result in increasing contents of total phenolics and -aminobutyric acid. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed 13 identifiable compounds: simple phenolic compounds; pyrans; furan; quinone; and fatty acids, in which biosyntheses of these 13 compounds were likely to be promoted by the plasma processing. These findings suggest that plasma technology could provide better quality pre-germinated brown rice. http://pubs.sciepub.com/jfnr/2/12/14/jfnr-2-12-14.pdf plasma pre-germination brown rice gas chromatography-mass spectrometry phenolics γ-aminobutyric acid