Influence of Water Content on the Quality of Pigeonpea Seeds

Abstract

The species Cajanus cajan L. where pigeonpea is from presents a harvest potential in tropical regions for it is used as human and animal feed, besides being used as green fertilizer. However, the harvest area of this Fabaceae is still insignificant, due to especially the lack of quality seeds. In this context, it is possible to affirm that drying and store are portrayed as important steps for obtaining superior quality seeds. The aim of this study is to evaluate the physiologic quality of dwarf pigeonpea seeds, with different water content during storage. A factorial scheme 3 × 6 was adopted in the delimitation completely randomized, with four replications. Treatments were constituted by the combination of lots of seeds containing three different water contents (11%, 14% and 16%), submitted to a 10-month storage period, with evaluations every two months (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10). Seeds were stocked in a bag type kraft under normal lab conditions, that is, no control. Physiologic quality of the seeds was evaluated through the following tests: Germination Pattern Test-GPT, first count of germination, accelerated aging and electric conductivity. It can be concluded that pigeonpea with hard seeds containing water content at 11% existing superior physiologic quality throughout the 10-month storage, under no controlled condition, certainly promoted by the less intense breathing from the reserves cumulated in the seed lot. Pigeonpea seeds storage with water content superior to 14% promotes a sharp decrease of physiologic quality, due to an increase in metabolic activity.

Effects of Moisture Content and Grain Type on Mechanical Properties of White Rice: Literature review and Experiment

“…High moisture content in grains will cause high respiration and metabolic activity. Low moisture content respiratory activity will decrease and will be able to maintain product quality during storage (Lisboa et al, 2017;Sa et al, 2020).…”