Large‐Scale Screening of Intact Castor Seeds by Viscosity Using Time‐Domain NMR and Chemometrics

Abstract

AbstractCastor is one of the most promising non‐edible oil crops, due to its high oil content and since it can be grown on marginal lands and in a semi‐arid climate. However, the high content of ricinoleic acid results in an extremely high viscosity of castor‐based biodiesel. In this study, we report on the development of a rapid and non‐destructive method for large‐scale screening of intact castor seeds according to their viscosity by time domain NMR and chemometrics. A qualitative principal component analysis model was constructed, where each observation was assigned to a different viscosity group. This model straightforwardly detects desirable outliers, and can also be applied for detection of other transgenic oilseeds, especially those containing small levels of hydroxylated fatty acid.