Fingerprinting of Volatile Organic Compounds as an Advance Technology to Assess the Seed Quality of Groundnut Through Correlation and Principal Component Analysis Method

Abstract

Background: Groundnut seeds are highly sensitive to deterioration mainly due to their chemical composition and moisture content. The high oil content and fatty acids of groundnut seeds reduces the seed viability well in advance due to lipid peroxidation process, which is the most frequent cause of seed ageing. As a result, not only lipid peroxidation, but also a series of reactions that produce toxic products occur. Stored seeds produce increased level of volatile organic compounds that leads to seed deterioration. Methods: The experiment was conducted to profile volatile organic compounds emitted from groundnut seeds during storage and also to analysis the volatile organic compounds through correlation and principal component analysis method. Volatile organic compounds profiling of stored groundnut seeds was done through Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The air sample was taken at monthly intervals from the glass bottle using solid-phase micro extraction (SPME) method. Result: The results of the study clearly demonstrated that, totally 52 volatile compounds comprising of 10 alcohols, 5 aldehydes, 15 acids, 9 esters, 7 alkanes, 3 alkenes, 2 ketones and 1 ether were trapped in stored groundnut seeds. Finally the study concluded that ethanol, 1-butanol, 1-hexanol, acetaldehyde, hexanal, Nonenal, 9,12,15-octadecatrionic acid, acetic acid and 3-methyl acetate were found to be highly negatively correlated with seed germination.