Cereal Chem 53:586 - 596.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Changes in Free Amino Acids, Carbohydrates, and Proteins of Maturing Seeds from Various Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Cultivars.

S. M. M. Basha, J. P. Cherry, and C. T. Young. Copyright 1976 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Maturing seeds harvested from plants of six peanut cultivars (Arachis hypogaea L.) grown for 17 and 20 weeks from time of planting were analyzed for dilute buffer (sodium phosphate; I = 0.03, pH 7.9) and total (1N NaOH)-soluble proteins, free amino acids, and carbohydrates. Based on morphological characteristics, the developing seeds were conveniently classified into four major stages of development, including immature, low and high intermediate, and mature. Based on the total protein content of defatted meals of mature seeds, each of the six cultivars included in this study could be placed in one of two groups (instead of the high, intermediate, and low classification of earlier findings) as follows: (a) 42-52%: Argentine, Tennessee Red, ad Florida Jumbo; and (b) 30-38%: NC5, F 334-A-B-14, and Virginia Bunch 67. Quantities of free amino acids and carbohydrates in seeds of all six cultivars first decreased rapidly during immature and low- and high-intermediate stages, and then the rate of decline of these constituents slowed as the seeds reached maturity. Individual free amino acids of maturing seeds from different cultivars disappeared quantitatively at various rates. The rate at which these biochemical changes occurred in developing seeds of high-protein cultivars differed from that of the low-protein group. Soluble and total protein content in these maturing seeds increased simultaneously, with these increases occurring more rapidly in the high-protein maturing seeds than in the low-protein group. Levels of free amino acids in immature cotyledons were higher in the high-protein than in the low-protein cultivars. However, a much more rapid decline in free amino acids occurred in the high-protein cultivars during the immature and low-intermediate stages, resulting in comparable levels of these constituents within the two groups at maturity. Electrophoretic studies revealed that nonarachin proteins were deposited early in cotyledon development, and arachin, the major storage globulin of peanut seeds, rapidly became the predominant component synthesized during the high-intermediate and mature stages.