Life Sciences Commons^™

Comparison Of Instrumental Methods For Measuring Seed Hardness Of Food-Grade Soybean, Mioko Tamura, Bo Zhang, Joyce Berger-Doyle, Pengyin Chen

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Seed hardness is an important factor in determining soybean suitability for natto production. There is no established methodology for testing seed texture of soybeans. The objective of this study was to develop an efficient method by examining different instruments and seed parameters that could be potentially used for testing soybean seed hardness. Five food-grade soybean genotypes with different seed sizes were used to determine seed hardness and water-absorption capacity. Water absorption capacity was expressed by swell ratios for seed weight, seed dimension, and volume of water changes before and after soaking. Seed hardness test was conducted by a one-bite method …