Cereal Chem. 71:82-86   |  VIEW ARTICLE


Distinguishing Selected Hard and Soft Red Winter Wheats by Image Analysis of Starch Granules.

I. Y. Zayas, D. B. Bechtel, J. D. Wilson, and R. E. Dempster. Copyright 1994 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Starch was isolated from 24 wheat samples representing 14 hard red winter (HRW) and 10 soft red winter (SRW) wheats grown in various areas of Kansas. Samples with a wide range of near-infrared reflectance hardness values were selected from the Kansas Winter Wheat Performance Test. Isolated starch images were video-recorded using dark-field light microscopy, and the digital images were analyzed by extrapolating various morphometric parameters. Two of these, equivalent diameter and aspect ratio, were useful in discriminating HRW from SRW wheats. Statistical analysis procedures were used to transform the raw data (equivalent diameter and aspect ratio) into frequency percentages within defined ranges. This transformation resulted in a new set of distributional data called counts. A plot of data for Count 4 (equivalent diameter in the 5.5-7.0 micrometer range) versus data for Count 3 (aspect ratio in the 1.65-1.95 micrometer range) was able to distinguish HRW wheats from SRW wheats, even though the near-infrared reflectance hardness values overlapped. Distributional analyses of the starch granule size and shape descriptors proved useful in classifying hard and soft wheats.