2. Materials and methods
2.1. Sample preparation
Barley coleoptile cells were used in this study as the sample
simulated food, because of their simple tissue composition and
uniform morphology, in which xenon hydrate formation can be
easily observed. Barley seeds (Hordium vulgare L. cv. Kobinkatagi)
were soaked in distilled water at 25 C in the dark for 48 h. They
were grown at 20 C in an incubator under fluorescent lighting
(18,000 Lux), for 13 h lighting periods at 90% relative humidity.
Coleoptiles were excised from 9 to 11 day old barley, and
single-celled layers of partially dissected coleoptiles were prepared.
The dissected coleoptiles, circa 10 mm long and 3 mm wide,
comprised 1200–1500 cells. The average size of barley coleoptile
cells is 100 lm 40 lm (Oshita et al., 1994). The moisture content
of the barley coleoptile tissue was 90.6%.