Physical Characteristics of Pseudocereals Seeds

Abstract

With the increase of the world population, we are looking for alternatives to supply the world's food demand. In view of this, and of the numerous benefits of the exploration of new crops as it happens with the pseudocereals, it becomes increasingly necessary studies on this subject, therefore, results that allow the implantation of these crops in the productive sector are of extreme relevance, with the purpose of facilitating its production, management and consequently its commercialization. The objective of this study was to evaluate the physical properties of amaranth and quinoa seeds. As results for the water content of 13.1% and 12.5% of amaranth and quinoa, the porosity results were, respectively, 35.5 and 39.7% and the slope angle of 25° amaranth and 28,26° quinoa. The length, width and thickness were 0.825 mm, 1.287 mm and 1.389 mm for amaranth seeds and 2.025 mm, 2.04 mm, 1.06 mm for quinoa. Sphericity was 93% for amaranth seed and 52% for quinoa. When the electrical property was evaluated, the permissivity values were 3.26 in amaranth and 3.10 in quinoa. The specific mass and weight of one thousand amaranth seeds were 804.7 kg m-³ and 0.78 g and for quinoa seeds of 720.7 kg m-³ and 3.01 g.