The influence of light wavelength on the germination performance of legumes

Abstract

Light quality is a very important factor affecting plant photosynthesis and growth. The use of light-emitting diode (LED) technology for growth stimulation and crops yield increase became very interesting in the last years. The present study aimed to determine the effect of light exposure on germination power and antioxidant activity of lentil, chickpea and broad bean legumes. Soaked legume seeds were germinated under e4xposure of four monochromatic wavelengths of 405, 500, 700 and 780 nm, respectively provided by batteries of 10 LEDs.
Germination process resulted to be favorable to legumes biological value enhancement. LED lighting was the most efficient in lentil germination, with the violet light at 405 nm and red light at 700 nm presenting the best results. The present study showed that not only small seeds can benefit from light exposure (at specific wavelengths), as broad bean germination under light also presented a significant improvement of total protein content and antioxidant activity.