Preliminary study on the use of near‐infrared reflectance spectroscopy to assess nitrogen content of undried wheat plants

Abstract

AbstractNear‐infrared reflectance (NIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometrics was used to assess nitrogen (N) and dry matter content (DM) and chlorophyll in whole‐wheat plant (Triticum aestivum L). Whole‐wheat plant samples (n = 245) were analysed by reference method and by visible and NIR spectroscopy, in fresh (n = 182) and dry (n = 63) presentations, respectively. Calibration equations were developed using partial least squares (PLS) and validated using full cross‐validation (leave‐one‐out method). Coefficient of determination in calibration (R2CAL) and the standard error of cross‐validation (SECV) for N content in fresh sample presentation, after second derivative, were 0.89 (SECV: 0.64%), 0.86 (SECV: 0.66%) and 0.82 (SECV: 0.74%) using the visible + NIR, NIR and visible wavelength regions, respectively. Dry sample presentation gave better R2CAL and SECV for N compared with fresh presentation (R2CAL > 0.90, SECV < 0.20%) using visible + NIR. The results demonstrated that NIR is a suitable method to assess N concentration in wheat plant using fresh samples (unground and undried). Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry