Single Soybean Seed NMR Calibration for Oil Measurement Using Commercial Cooking Oils

Abstract Development of high oil soybeans would reduce the cost of soybean oil production for biodiesel or edible oil applications. An accurate determination of soybean seed oil concentration is essential especially when developing superior cultivars with increased seed oil content. The objective of this study was to develop an oil measurement method for single seeds using NMR spectrometry. An NMR spectrometer was calibrated using commercial cooking oil. Fifteen cultivars of known mean oil content were used to evaluate the calibration curves. The calibration curves developed had a correlation coefficient of 0.99. It was found that soybean and corn oil gave identical results over the calibrated interval.