Industrial Crops and Products 21 (2005) 353–359 Batch drying of cuphea seeds Steven C. Cermak a,∗ , Terry A. Isbell a , Judd E. Isbell b , Gregory G. Akerman c , Benjamin A. Lowery a , Amy B. Deppe a a New Crops and Processing Technology Research, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, USDA1, Agricultural Research Service, 1815 N. University St., Peoria, IL 61604, USA b Isbell Farm Consulting, 12802 Center St., Hanna City, IL 61536, USA c Cube Inc., 1815 N. University St., Peoria, IL 61604, USA Received 2 June 2003; accepted 13 May 2004 Abstract Fresh mechanically harvested cuphea seed from the Midwest contains more than 50% moisture. Such high moisture leads to challenging drying problems. Cuphea seeds must be dried immediately to reduce moisture before destructive seed mold and material-clumping develop. A method had to be developed to batch dry large quantities of cuphea seeds. The freshly harvested, wet, uncleaned seeds were dried using a Grain Technology 245XL Dryer. Drier conditions were optimized over a 2 year period to yield a procedure for a batch drying process. In this process, the grain dryer was modified to help meet the demands of a small seed that has greater than 50% moisture at harvest. The seed moisture data was collected on a low-cost, commercially available G-7 Grain Moisture Meter, which can be used for different crops. The meter showed a strong correlation between the soybean setting and actual cuphea moisture content (%) measured in the lab when seed moisture was less than 20%. The cuphea seeds were dried to about 12% for storage. Published by Elsevier B.V. Keywords: Cuphea; Drying; Grain technology; Moisture; Seed 1. Introduction Cuphea (Lythraceae) is an annual plant that pro- duces a small oil seed that is rich in saturated, medium-chain triacyglycerols (Wolf et al., 1983). Oil characterization for a number of cuphea species was first made in the early 1960’s by Miller et al. (1964). As with most new crops, many obstacles must be overcome before a wild plant can become a major ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 309 6816233; fax: +1 309 6816524. E-mail address: cermaksc@ncaur.usda.gov (S.C. Cermak). industrial crop. One of cuphea’s major problems is seed shattering, a condition that causes seeds to be released from the pod as they mature. A breeding se- lection was made where seed retention was improved (Knapp, 1992). This new variety retains most of the seed from being released onto the ground, and thus can be mechanically harvested. A second problem with cuphea is its indeterminate growth behavior. The plant continues to flower and de- velop seed. This indeterminate growth characteristic results in a range of seed maturities within individual plants and correspondingly a vast range in seed mois- ture throughout the field. Consequently, when the field 0926-6690/$ – see front matter. Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2004.05.003