SHORT COMMUNICATION Screening for erucic acid and glucosinolate content in rapeseed-mustard seeds using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy Satyanshu Kumar & Jitendra Singh Chauhan & Arvind Kumar Revised: 13 November 2009 / Accepted: 17 November 2009 / Published online: 29 October 2010 # Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India) 2010 Abstract Using partial least square regression, calibration for non-destructive estimation of erucic acid and glucosi- nolate contents in seeds of rapeseed-mustard by Fourier transform near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (FT-NIRS) was developed. The calibration developed showed a very close relationship between the reference method for erucic acid (gas chromatography) and glucosinolate content (palladium complex formation) and NIR spectral data from 7502.1 to 5444.6 cm . -1 The coefficients of determinations were 97.16% and 98.34% for erucic acid and glucosinolate contents, respectively. Keywords Fourier transform near infrared reflectance spectroscopy . Calibration . Erucic acid . Glucosinolate . Rapeseed-mustard Rapeseed-mustard is an important source of edible oil in Indian diet especially in Eastern and North-Western India. The major fatty acids of rapeseed-mustard oil are oleic, linoleic, linolenic, eicosenoic and erucic acid. Erucic acid in oil of Indian rapeseed-mustard varieties is quite high (Chauhan et al. 2007). High amount of erucic acid in edible oils has been reported to impair myocardial conductance, causes lipidosis in children and increases blood cholestrol (Gopalan et al. 1974; Renard and McGregor 1976; Ackman et al. 1977). Rapeseed-mustard cultivars grown in India also have high level of glucosino- late content (Chauhan et al. 2007). Glucosinolates, a group of plant thioglucosides, found principally among members of family Brassicaceae are responsible for the characteristic pungency of rapeseed-mustard oil. The glucosinolates are broken down by the enzyme thioglucoside glucohydrolase commonly known as myrosinase to yield sulphate, glucose and other aglucon products. Cleavage products from hydrolysis are detrimental to animal health as they reduce the feed palatability and affect the iodine uptake by the thyroid glands thus reducing feed efficiency and weight gains (Bille et al. 1983; Fenwick et al. 1983; Bell 1984) especially in non-ruminants such as pigs and poultry. Because of the adverse effects of high erucic acid in oil (35.7–51.4%) and glucosinolates in seed meal (49.9– 120.3 μmole/g defatted seed meal) of Indian rapeseed- mustard varieties (Chauhan et al. 2007), rapeseed-mustard varietal improvement programme in India aims at reducing erucic acid level up to 2% and glucosinolate content up to 30 μ moles/g defatted seed meal. Internationally accepted norms necessitate screening of a large number of samples with limited seed availability especially in early segregating generations. Erucic acid in oil is currently being analysed in most of the breeding programmes in the country by gas- liquid chromatography, an expensive, time consuming and destructive method. Glucosinolate content can be accurately estimated by chromatographic as well as colorimetric methods. But these methods are cumbersome, time con- suming, expensive and destructive in nature and hence are not suitable for screening a large number of breeding materials with limited seed quantity in early segregating generations. Palladium complex method (Kumar et al. 2004) based on the formation of a complex between hydrolytic products of glucosinolates and sodium tetra- chloro palladate (II) has been extensively used at the DRMR, Bharatpur and several other research centres in the country. Although this method is rapid as compared to colorimetric methods but is destructive in nature. Further- S. Kumar (*) : J. S. Chauhan : A. Kumar Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research, Sewar, Bharatpur 321303 Rajasthan, India e-mail: satyanshu66@gmail.com J Food Sci Technol (Nov–Dec 2010) 47(6):690–692 DOI 10.1007/s13197-010-0120-3