In order to clarify the effects of early harvesting of rice grains on the taste characteristics of cooked rice, especially on the taste items of "sweetness" and "deliciousness," we compared "early-harvest" rice which was harvested 10 days before the ordinary harvest time and "ordinary-harvest" rice which was harvested at the usual time. From the results of sensory tests, the cooked early-harvest rice was evaluated as being sweeter and more delicious than the cooked ordinary-harvest rice. The greater sweetness in the former rice was primarily due to the formation of glucose, maltose and maltoligosaccharides from starch, probably by starch degradation enzymes during soaking and/or cooking. The cooked early-harvest rice also contained more L-glutamic acid than the cooked ordinary-harvest rice. From these results, it was concluded that when rice is harvested 10 days before the ordinary time of harvesting, the cooked rice will be sweeter and more delicious.Keywords: early harvesting, cooked rice, sweetness, maltoligosaccharides, starch degradation enzymeThe time of harvesting rice grains has conventionally been determined from the standpoints of attaining a good external appearance, getting sufficient yield and making the harvesting work easier, without taking the eating quality of the harvested grains into account. On the other hand, when the harvesting time of rice has been extremely retarded or advanced the taste of cooked rice has been reduced; suggesting that the time of harvest of the grains can have a critical influence on the quality of cooked rice. To identify an optimum harvesting time to assure rice of good eating quality, many studies have examined factors related to taste such as the contents of amylose and protein in milled rice (Taira et al., 1978;Asaoka et al., 1985;Tamaki et al., 1989a;Matsue et al. 1991;Takebe et al., 1994) and the texture parameters of cooked rice (Ebata et al., 1982;Tamaki et al., 1989a) in relation to the time of harvesting. It has been asserted in these studies that an adequate period of time for harvesting rice grains to obtain cooked rice of good quality is about 40 days after heading (Ebata et al., 1982).More, recent reports showed that in addition to such taste components as amylose and protein, other characteristics of sweetness and deliciousness greatly contribute to the quality of cooked rice (Tamaki et al., 1989b;Matsuzaki et al., 1992;Sugiyama et al., 1995;Arai et al., 1997). However, the optimum time for harvesting grains with special reference to the taste characteristics of cooked rice has scarcely been examined to date.The objective of the present study was thus to clarify the effects, which the harvest time, especially early harvest, has on these previously unevaluated taste characteristics of cooked rice, as well as on taste characters, which have already been subjected to research.
Materials and MethodsPlant materials Rice plants (Oryza sativa L. cv. Koshihikari) grown at Nita-cho in Shimane Prefecture in 1997 were used. Developing grains were sampled at 32 and 4...