Use of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for Estimating Lignan Glucosides Contents in Intact Sesame Seeds

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to develop a rapid and efficient method to determine lignan glucosides in intact seeds of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) germplasm accessions in Korea. A total of 93 samples (about 2 g of intact seeds) were scanned in the reflectance mode of a scanning monochromator, and the reference values for lignan glucosides contents were measured by high performance liquid chromatography. Calibration equations for sesaminol triglucoside, sesaminol (1→2) diglucoside, sesamolinol diglucoside, sesaminol (1→6) diglucoside, and total amount of lignan glucosides were developed using modified partial least square regression with internal cross validation (n = 63), which exhibited lower SECV (standard errors of cross-validation), higher R (coefficient of determination in calibration), and higher 1-VR (ratio of unexplained variance divided by variance) values. Prediction of an external validation set (n = 30) showed a significant correlation between reference values and NIRS estimated values based on the SEP (standard error of prediction), r (coefficient of determination in prediction), and the ratio of standard deviation (SD) of reference data to SEP, as factors used to evaluate the accuracy of equations. The models for each glucoside content had relatively higher values of SD/SEP(C) and r (more than 2.0 and 0.80, respectively), thereby characterizing those equations as having good quantitative information, while those of sesaminol (1→2) diglucoside showing a minor quantity had the lowest SD/SEP(C) and r values (1.7 and 0.74, respectively), indicating a poor correlation between reference values and NIRS estimated values. The results indicated that NIRS could be used to rapidly determine lignan glucosides content in sesame seeds in the breeding programs for high quality sesame varieties.