I was wondering, since higher voltages and longer treatment times can cause localized heating, how can we be sure that the observed changes (like protein denaturation, phenolic shifts, and reduction of antinutritional factors) are truly due to plasma chemistry and not partly due to thermal effects? Also, have you thought about how stable these plasma-induced improvements would be during real-world storage, like at room temperature or with moisture exposure, and whether that might affect the flour’s performance later on in food applications?
From what I understand in the methodology section, the authors used a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma setup under atmospheric pressure with relatively short exposure durations (up to 10 minutes). These conditions are generally considered non-thermal or minimally thermal; however, you’re right that even slight surface heating could contribute to observed effects such as protein denaturation or changes in phenolic content.
Unless the authors directly monitored sample temperature during plasma exposure (which doesn’t appear to be reported), it would be difficult to fully rule out thermal contributions. That said, some of the changes—such as shifts in surface functional groups or specific reductions in antinutritional factors, are more characteristic of plasma-induced chemical interactions (e.g., reactive oxygen and nitrogen species) than heat alone.
Regarding your second question about the stability of these modifications during storage, I didn’t find a storage or shelf-life analysis in the current study, so it would indeed be valuable to investigate whether the observed improvements persist under conditions relevant to real-world food applications.
Authors, please feel free to correct me if I’ve misinterpreted the setup or missed any temperature control details. Your insight would be greatly appreciated.