Studies on Some Engineering Properties of Peanut Pod and Kernel

Abstract

Physical properties viz. dimension (D1, D2, D3), arithmetic mean diameter (AMD), geometric mean diameter (GMD), square mean diameter (SMD), equivalent diameter (EQD), sphericity (Sp) and aspect ratio (AR) of nine different varieties of peanut and its kernel were determined at the moisture content of 4.5±1% db. Dimensions D1,D2,D3 varied between 16.8-34.6, 11.04-14.9, 11.0-14.4 mm for peanut pod, and 11.9-19.8, 8.03-11.65 and 6.82-9.96 mm for peanut kernel, respectively. AMD, GMD, SMD and EQD were 15.9-21.2, 14.6-19.4, 26.1-34.9 and 18.9-25.2 mm for peanut pod and 8.9-13.5, 8.7-12.8, 15.2-22.8 and 10.9-16.4 mm for peanut kernel, respectively. Sp and AR ranged between 0.6-0.7 and 0.4-0.7 for peanut pod and its kernel, respectively. Bulk density for peanut pod and its kernel were 199-329 and 443-619 g/ml, respectively. Thousand kernel mass of nine varieties studied were lowest for M4 (158 g) and highest for IC2 (1594 g) for peanut pod, and lowest for S1 (446 g) and highest for IC2 (784) varieties for peanut kernel. The oil content in peanut kernel ranged from 41.8-57.7 per cent.