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Title: A QUICK METHOD FOR DETERMINING CARBOHYDRATES IN RICE STEMS

Author
item JUND, M - TEXAS A&M UNIV
item Bergman, Christine
item TURNER, F - TEXAS A&M UNIV

Submitted to: Experiment Station Bulletins
Publication Type: Experiment Station
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/5/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Total non-structural carbohydrate (TNC) content at main crop harvest, reportedly is correlated with ratoon crop yield. Consequently, rice producers could adjust their ratoon crop management using TNC data in order to maximize yields. For this to come to fruition a rapid method for determining TNC would be required. Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIR) was evaluated for its potential use as a tool for rapid TNC analysis Whole rice plants collected from several Texas rice growing regions were ground to pass through a one mm screen and a wet chemistry method was used to determine their TNC content. Samples with a range in TNC were scanned using the visible and near infrared spectral regions and an NIR calibration equation was developed. The calibration equation was able to satisfactorily predict the TNC content of 27 independent samples(coefficient of determination equals 0.87). These encouraging preliminary results indicate that further work on this method is justified. Additional samples from future harvests will be used to expand the data set and the new calibration equation generated will be challenged with samples from Texas and Louisiana harvests.