Characterization of White Lupin Seed Coats

Abstract

White lupin (Lupinus albus L.), a winter legume crop with tremendous potential as a food crop, has been evaluated at Virginia State University for several years. This effort has developed several winter-hardy, high-yielding lines, which vary in alkaloid concentration in the seeds. Current study was conducted to characterize various component of lupin seed especially seed coat and cotyledon portion in seeds of five lupin lines (VSU-1, VSU-1X, VSU-5, VSU-10, and VSU-101). Five hundred seeds of each line were separated into seed coats and cotyledons to record relative proportions. Whole seeds, seed coats, and cotyledons were analyzed to determine concentrations of protein, fiber, fat, iron and zinc. Significant differences were observed among five lines for seed coat proportion, which varied from 22.6 to 25.6 percent. Proportions of protein (7.8, 41.6, and 34.3 percent), fiber (44.7, 1.0, and 12.2 percent), fat (1.3, 10.4, and 8.6 percent), and zinc (14.5, 61.9, and 50.8 percent) concentrations varied significantly for seed coats, cotyledons, and whole seed, respectively but not for iron concentration. Results of this study indicate that separation of seed coats from white lupin seed could be used to develop value-added products; to increase nutritional quality of white lupin seeds; and enhance white lupin’s suitability as a plant protein source.