Fatty acid composition and other quality attributes for Virginia peanut kernels based on pod mesocarp color designation

Description

The indeterminate growth nature of the peanut plant can result in pods ranging from immature to fully mature on plants at the time in which they are harvested. When harvesting high-oleic cultivars it is important to harvest at optimum maturity to ensure seeds are adequately expressing the high-oleic trait. The expression of fatty acid, tocopherol and carbohydrate content in three high-oleic Virginia type cultivars (Emery, Sullivan, and Wynne) and one normal-oleic cultivar (Bailey) at different points in maturity was evaluated. Two fields were planted in Lewiston-Woodville, NC USA in two consecutive years in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The plants were harvested at 113 days after planting and then at 10 day intervals for 4 more harvests. All pods were removed from the plants, and the pods were sorted according to mesocarp color, dried over forced air and hand shelled. The kernels were analyzed for moisture, total oil, fatty acids, tocopherols and small carbohydrates. Emery and Wynne had the largest seed size and Bailey and Sullivan had the highest oil content at full maturity. Other components were found to increase with maturity, but did not differ significantly after the Orange B with the exception of Bailey which was generally lower. Harvest of the Virginia cultivars is still recommended at full maturity to result in the highest crop yields.

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Peanuts were grown in 2 crop years, pods were hand picked, color sorted based on pod color, cured, shelled, analyzed using AOCS and other published methods for fatty acids by GC-FID, total fat by low power NMR, tocopherols by normal phase HPLC and sugars by HPLC with electrochemical detection.

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