Summary
Mung bean grains exhibit high level of antioxidant activity due the presence of phenolic compounds. Near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), in conjunction with chemometrics, was used to develop a rapid, nondestructive, chemical free and easy‐to‐use method to determine these compounds in sixty genotypes of mung bean. NIRS calibration curve with high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as reference method was used to determine phenolic compounds (catechin, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, p‐coumaric acid, t‐ferulic acid, vitexin, isovitexin, myricetin, quercetin and kaempferol). It was observed that partial least square regression (PLSR) model in the wavelength range of 1600–2500 nm with standard normal variate (SNV) and linear baseline correction (LBC) as preprocessing techniques can measure phenolic compound accurately (R2 > 0.987) with root‐mean‐square error less than 1.82%. This study shows that NIRS along with chemometrics is an accurate method to estimate the phenolic compounds rapidly and nondestructively.