| Popis: |
Peanut maturity has previously been correlated with the color of the mesocarp of the peanut hull going from light to dark as the peanut matures. In this study, peanuts were sorted into maturity classes of yellow, orange A, orange B, brown and black based on the hull scrape method of Williams and Drexler. The Hunter L*, a*, and b* values were also measured on the dry pods for each class. The color of the mesocarp of freshly harvested peanuts was determined using a Hunter colorimeter. Hunter L*, a*, and b* values on individual peanuts, representative of each class using wet and dry hulls, were reproducibly determined with standard deviations of less than 0.8%. Yellow peanut pods had a median L* value of 70.0, while mature black peanut pods had a median L* value of 51.7 and median values for orange A, orange B and brown pods were, 68.0, 63.7, 57.0, respectively. A similar inverse relationship was observed for the b* value and maturity, while the a* value reached a maximum at orange A. No correlation was observed between the peanut maturity and L*, a*, and b* values acquired with the exocarp intact. Hunter L* and b* values of mesocarps show potential for determining physiological maturity of peanuts. |
