Impacts of Ultrasonic Waves on Seeds: A Mini-Review

Abstract

Seeds are essential in rebuilding the production capacity of a crop, maintaining the germplasm, and improving species diversity. The ultrasound technology has been successfully used in many mass transfer processes in food, such as in drying, extraction, osmotic dehydration, desalting and hydration. However, during the recent years, ultrasonic waves have also vastly been applied as an efficient technique for breaking seed dormancy and improving the germination characteristics. This mini-review aimed to investigate the impacts of ultrasonic waves on seed germination percentage and speed of the different species. As the result of this mini-review, the ultrasonic waves positively affect the germination percentage in all the species except two cases. However, the germination speed in all the species increases through application of the ultrasounds. The reasons for the positive effects of the ultrasounds on the seeds are also discussed.