Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Manhattan, Kansas » Center for Grain and Animal Health Research » Grain Quality and Structure Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #430137
Research Project: Interactions Among Physical Grain Traits, Chemistry, and Cooking and Processing Techniques on Sorghum End-use Value

Location: Grain Quality and Structure Research

Title: Estimating sorghum leaf dhurrin content using a handheld near infrared instrument

Author
item Peiris, Kamaranga
item Bean, Scott
item Hayes, Chad
item Emendack, Yves
item Sanchez, Jacobo

Submitted to: Frontiers in Plant Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/26/2026
Publication Date: 2/10/2026
Citation: Peiris, K.H., Bean, S.R., Hayes, C.M., Emendack, Y., Sanchez, J. 2026. Estimating sorghum leaf dhurrin content using a handheld near infrared instrument. Plant Methods. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2026.1759377.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2026.1759377

Interpretive Summary: Dhurrin is the major cyanogenic glycoside found in different species of sorghum used for grain and forage production. However, production of dhurrin is a serious limitation to sorghum’s usefulness as a forage crop because under certain conditions, dhurrin levels can be high in sorghum plant tissues and may become toxic to animals when consumed as forage. Because of this, it is important to develop new, low cyanogenic sorghum forage varieties to ensure safe grazing. To help with this, the development of simple methods to assess the cyanide levels of plants in the field is needed. This research tested the feasibility of using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for estimating dhurrin content of mature sorghum leaves using a handheld instrument that could be used in the field. The results showed that the handheld NIR instrument could be used to predict dhurrin levels and therefore help in breeding efforts to develop low dhurrin forage sorghum lines. This would directly benefit sorghum producers and the U.S. cattle industry.

Technical Abstract: Background: Dhurrin is a toxic cyanogenic glycoside present in sorghum as a secondary metabolite. As such, dhurrin content of plants is important when sorghum is used as a forage crop. Moreover, leaf dhurrin content may indicate pre- and post-flowering drought resistance of sorghum germplasm. Standard method of analysis by HPLC is expensive and time consuming. Therefore, a feasibility study was conducted to measure dhurrin content in sorghum leaves by NIR spectroscopy using a handheld NIR spectrometer. Results: Partial least squares (PLS) regression, back propagation neural network (BPNN) and deep learning artificial neural network (ANNDL) models were developed to estimate dhurrin content in dry sorghum leaves. NIR spectroscopy models could estimate the dhurrin content of dry sorghum leaves with R2 = 0.711-0.719, RMSEP = 5.89 - 5.96µg/mg and bias of -0.26 – 0.11 µg/mg in a population of leaves with dhurrin content ranging from 0.65- 46.52µg/mg. Conclusions: Therefore, NIR spectroscopy may be used as a rapid and cost-effective technique for pre-screening sorghum germplasm for leaf dhurrin content in plant breeding programs.