The impact of plasma activated water on spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) growth, development and content of plant bioactive compounds

Mihaela Blažinkov; Nataša Romanjek Fajdetić; Krunoslav Mirosavljević; Robert Benković; Ljiljana Božić-Ostojić; Dinko Zima; Slavica Antunović; Iva Knezović; Teuta Benković-Lačić

doi:10.2478/fhort-2025-0007

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The impact of plasma activated water on spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) growth, development and content of plant bioactive compounds

Folia Horticulturae

Volume 37 (2025): Issue 1 (July 2025)

By: Mihaela Blažinkov , Nataša Romanjek Fajdetić , Krunoslav Mirosavljević , Robert Benković , Ljiljana Božić-Ostojić , Dinko Zima , Slavica Antunović , Iva Knezović and Teuta Benković-Lačić

Open Access

|Aug 2025

Figures & Tables

Pots with spinach plants in greenhouse GC. GC, growing conditions.

Preparation of spinach plants material for measurement of plant growth parameters.

Table 1.

Number of spinach leaves under PAW treatment and different GC.

Number of leaves
Sampling date	Measurement 1 4 April 2024		Measurement 2 19 April 2024		Measurement 3 2 May 2024		Measurement 4 16 May 2024
PAW treatment	GC		GC		GC		GC
PAW treatment	G	F	G	F	G	F	G	F
PAW 0	6.00	5.33	7.00	6.67	10.33	9.33	16.33	17.00
PAW 1			6.67	6.33	11.67	11.33	16.00	16.00
PAW 2			7.00	8.67	12.33	12.33	18.33	16.00
F_PAW			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 2.74)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 3.24)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.42)
F_GC			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.47)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.3)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.28)
Interaction
F_PAW—F_GC			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 1.89)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.13)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.75)

1 PAW 1—treatment 1; PAW 2—treatment 2; PAW 0—control; G—greenhouse; F—field; F_PAW—F test PAW treatment; F_GC—F test growing conditions; F_PAW–F_GC—F test interaction; n.s.—no statistical significance; Values between the same line followed by different lowercase letters are statistically significantly different (LSD) at p < 0.05; Values within the same columns followed by different capital letters are statistically significantly different (LSD) at p < 0.05.

1 GC, growing conditions; LSD, least significant differences; PAW, plasma activated water.

Table 2.

The spinach plant height under PAW treatment and different GC.

Plant height (cm
Sampling date	Measurement 1 4 April 2024		Measurement 2 19 April 2024		Measurement 3 2 May 2024		Measurement 4 16 May 2024
PAW treatment	GC		GC		GC		GC
PAW treatment	G	F	G	F	G	F	G	F
PAW 0	7.00	5.67	8.10	7.33	12.67	12.37	18.8 bB	17.23 bB
PAW 1			8.17	7.53	14.57	13.17	19.47 bB	24.57 aA
PAW 2			7.90	9.90	15.57	15.50	19.77 bB	27.37 aA
F_PAW			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 1.32)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 2.61)		*(p < 0.05, F = 7.29)
F_GC			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.09)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.3)		*(p < 0.05, F = 9.19)
Interaction
F_PAW—F_GC			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 1.91)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.15)		*(p < 0.05, F = 4.99)

1 PAW 1—treatment 1; PAW 2—treatment 2; PAW 0—control; G—greenhouse; F—field; F_PAW—F test PAW treatment; F_GC—F test GC; F_Paw– F_GC—F test interaction.

1 Values between the same line followed by different lowercase letters are statistically significantly different (LSD) at p < 0.05; values within the same columns followed by different capital letters are statistically significantly different (LSD) at p < 0.05.

1* Statistical significance.

1 GC, growing conditions; LSD, least significant differences; n.s., no statistical significance; PAW, plasma activated water.

Table 3.

The measurement of spinach plant diameter under PAW treatment and different GC.

Plant diameter (cm)
Sampling date	Measurement 1 4 April 2024		Measurement 2 19 April 2024		Measurement 3 2 May 2024		Measurement 4 16 May 2024
PAW treatment	GC		GC		GC		GC
PAW treatment	G	F	G	F	G	F	G	F
PAW 0	4.50	4.50	10.0 a	5.93 b	11.83	11.40	21.03 AB	17.5 7B
PAW 1			9.7 a	9.93 a	14.00	12.30	20.87 AB	20.8 AB
PAW 2			10.8 a	9.0 a	14.33	13.33	25.3 A	23.97 A
F_PAW			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 1.59)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.89)		*(p < 0.05, F = 3.66)
F_GC			*(p < 0.05, F = 3.51)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.57)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.96)
Interaction
F_PAW—F_GC			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 1.54)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.07)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.36)

1 PAW 1—treatment 1; PAW 2—treatment 2; PAW 0—control; G—greenhouse; F—field; F_PAW—F test PAW treatment; F_GC—F test GC;F_PAW— F_GC—F test interaction.

1* Statistical significance.

1 GC, growing conditions; LSD, least significant differences; n.s., no statistical significance; PAW, plasma activated water.

Table 4.

The plants green mass under PAW treatment and different GC.

Green mass (g)
Sampling date	Measurement 1 4 April 2024		Measurement 2 19 April 2024		Measurement 3 2 May 2024		Measurement 4 16 May 2024
PAW treatment	GC		GC		GC		GC
PAW treatment	G	F	G	F	G	F	G	F
PAW 0	0.43	0.44	1.09	1.18	6.55 B	9.01 B	33.79 B	31.05 B
PAW 1			1.31	0.85	10.7 AB	9.05 B	43.08 AB	49.47 AB
PAW 2			1.10	1.95	17.31 A	12.6 AB	58.98 A	67.87 A
F_PAW			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.93)		*(p < 0.05, F = 4.36)		*(p < 0.05, F = 11.6)
F_GC			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.3)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.41)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.63)
Interaction
F_PAW—F_GC			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 1.71)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 1.03)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.45)

1 PAW 1—treatment 1; PAW 2—treatment 2; PAW 0—control; G—greenhouse; F—field; F_PAW—F test PAW treatment; F_GC—F test GC;F_PAW– F_GC—F test interaction.

1* Statistical significance.

1 GC, growing conditions; LSD, least significant differences; n.s., no statistical significance; PAW, plasma activated water.

Table 5.

The plants dry matter under PAW treatment and different GC (g).

Dry matter (g)
Sampling date	Measurement 1 4 April 2024		Measurement 2 19 April 2024		Measurement 3 2 May 2024		Measurement 4 16 May 2024
PAW treatment	GC		GC		GC		GC
PAW treatment	G	F	G	F	G	F	G	F
PAW 0	0.12	0.12	0.10	0.13	0.89	1.03	5.91 B	4.97 B
PAW 1			0.14	0.08	1.32	0.89	6.1 AB	8.08 AB
PAW 2			0.10	0.24	1.99	1.67	7.79 AB	9.28 A
F_PAW			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.99)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 3.2)		*(p < 0.05, F = 4.16)
F_GC			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.96)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.47)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.92)
Interaction
FPAW—FGC			n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 2.05)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 0.34)		n.s. (p < 0.05, F = 1.06)

1 PAW 1—treatment 1; PAW 2—treatment 2; PAW 0—control; G—greenhouse; F—field; F_PAW—F test PAW treatment; F_GC—F test GC;F_PAW– F_GC—F test interaction.

1* Statistical significance.

1 Values between the same line followed by different lowercase letters are statistically significantly different (LSD) at p<0.05; values within the same columns followed by different capital letters are statistically significantly different (LSD) at p<0.05.

1 GC, growing conditions; LSD, least significant differences; n.s., no statistical significance; PAW, plasma activated water.

Table 6.

Results of chemical properties of plant material grown in greenhouse and field conditions (mg · 100 g⁻¹ plant).

Treatment	d.m.%	N	P₂O₅	P	K²O	K	Ca	Mg	Fe	Zn	Mn	Cu
PAW 0 G	15.50	347	130	57.0	561	465	280	122	2.28	1.50	0.66	0.152
PAW 1 G	17.24	429	221	96.4	719	597	291	131	3.10	2.02	0.70	0.133
PAW 2 G	16.94	406	202	88.0	924	767	264	115	4.08	1.64	0.67	0.124
PAW 0 F	14.37	302	108	41.5	565	496	190	94	3.56	1.39	0.46	0.089
PAW 1 F	15.68	312	187	52.3	628	521	217	116	3.51	1.46	0.72	0.125
PAW 2 F	16.33	286	120	47.1	743	617	232	111	3.36	1.83	0.58	0.109

1 PAW 0 G—control in greenhouse; PAW 1 G—PAW 1 greenhouse; PAW 2 G—PAW 2 in greenhouse; PAW 0 F—control in field; PAW 1 F—PAW 1 application if field; PAW 2 F—PAW 2 application in field; d.m.—dry matter.

1 PAW, plasma activated water.

Table 7.

Content of total phenols, phenolic acids, antioxidant properties, flavonoids and proline in spinach samples grown in field and greenhouse conditions.

	Total phenols mg GAE · g⁻¹ d.w.	Phenolic mg CAE · g⁻¹ d.w.	Antioxidant activity μmol TE · g⁻¹ d.w.	Flavonoids mg CE · g⁻¹ d.w.	Prolines μmol proline · g⁻¹ d.w.
PAW 0 F	2.105 ± 0.175	0.668 ± 0.109	3.681 ± 0.929	0.493 ± 0.023	0.13 ± 0.025
PAW 1 F	2.357 ± 0.49	0.731 ± 0.07	4.649 ± 1.432	0.524 ± 0.129	0.298 ± 0.083
PAW 2 F	2.110 ± 0.476	0.747 ± 0.144	3.984 ± 0.392	0.493 ± 0.11	0.437 ± 0.259
PAW 0 G	1.379 ± 0.165	0.453 ± 0.036	2.228 ± 0.458	0.251 ± 0.036	0.229 ± 0.108
PAW 1 G	1.455 ± 0.33	0.428 ± 0.069	2.668 ± 0.663	0.284 ± 0.03	0.458 ± 0.082
PAW 2 G	1.617 ± 0.391	0.503 ± 0.078	3.237 ± 1.189	0.313 ± 0.074	0.380 ± 0.165

1 Values of measured parameters are given as means ± STDEV of three biological replicates.

1 PAW 0 G—control in greenhouse; PAW 1 G—PAW 1 greenhouse; PAW 2G—PAW 2 in greenhouse; PAW 0 F—control in field; PAW 1 F—PAW 1 application if field; PAW 2 F—PAW 2 application in field values of measured parameters are given as means ± STDEV of three biological replicates.

1 PAW, plasma activated water.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fhort-2025-0007 | Journal eISSN: 2083-5965 | Journal ISSN: 0867-1761

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Language: English

Page range: 79 - 90

Submitted on: Mar 28, 2025

Accepted on: Apr 29, 2025

Published on: Aug 6, 2025

Published by: Polish Society for Horticultural Sciences (PSHS)

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

Keywords:

bioactive compounds,

growing conditions,

morphological properties,

plasma activated water,

spinach

Related subjects:

Life sciences,

Plant science

© 2025 Mihaela Blažinkov, Nataša Romanjek Fajdetić, Krunoslav Mirosavljević, Robert Benković, Ljiljana Božić-Ostojić, Dinko Zima, Slavica Antunović, Iva Knezović, Teuta Benković-Lačić, published by Polish Society for Horticultural Sciences (PSHS)
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Volume 37 (2025): Issue 1 (July 2025)

The impact of plasma activated water on spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) growth, development and content of plant bioactive compounds

Figures & Tables

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Table 1.

Table 2.

Table 3.

Table 4.

Table 5.

Table 6.

Table 7.

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