Determination of Fatty Acid Composition in Soybean Seed Using Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy

A chemometric method has been applied for the determination of the fatty acid concentration in soybean samples by using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) measurements. A total of 194 soybean calibration samples and 65 validation samples were used for NIRS equation development and validation, respectively. The NIRS fatty acid equations had low SEC values for all five fatty acids, and moderate R² values for three of the five fatty acids. Additionally, the predicted means for each fatty acids were similar to the means based on the GC analysis. Based on the SEP, bias, and R² statistics, the NIRS fatty acid equations accurately predicted oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acid concentration of the validation sample set. Therefore, these data suggest that the oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acid NIRS equations have potential use as a mass screening method for fatty acid analysis in soybean seed.