Abstract:
Peanut is one of the most
important oil crops in Turkey and grown
mainly in Adana, Osmaniye and Aydın
provinces. Five peanut cultivars (NC-V11,
Halisbey, Arioglu 2003, Sultan and
Osmaniye 2005), mostly grown in Turkey,
were analyzed for the physical and
mechanical characteristics of pods to select
the most promising candidate. The average
length, width, thickness, the geometric mean
diameter, sphericity index and rupture force
were studied. The results indicated that all
the studied traits were varied significant
among the varieties. Thus, a significant
extent of genetic diversity was observed
among the peanut cultivars under study.
Shelling percentage values were varied
between 65.7 - 71.6%. The highest shelling
percentage was obtained at NC-V11 variety,
while the lowest value was obtained at
Sultan. The variety NC-V11, Halisbey,
Arioglu 2003, Sultan and Osmaniye 2005
showed the average lengths of 42.27, 44.68,
46.17, 49.39 and 44.57 mm; width of 16.00,
17.90, 17.57, 17.45, and 17.92 mm;
thickness of 17.33; 18.68; 18.54, 18.42, and
19.10 mm, respectively. Rupture force and
stiffness values of peanuts depend on the
cultivars and varied from 191.06 to 253.19
N and 129715.61 to 184954.67 N/m as
higher and lower values, respectively. The
varieties Arioglu 2003, Halisbey and Sultan
have lower rupture force and stiffness
values. On the other hand, NC-V-11 and
Osmaniye-2005 varieties have higher value
of rupture force and stiffness. These
findings indicated that these two varieties
need to more energy for hull rupture. But, in
the same time, it played an important role
for storage. The NC-V-11 variety achieved
the highest values of rupture force than
others. Some varieties had thick and strong
hull, while some other had thin and weak.
