Characterization of Spanish peanut germplasm (Arachis hypogaea L.) for sugar profiling and oil quality

Peanut is an important oilseed crop of tropical and sub-tropical area of the world. As a rich source of energy, vitamins and minerals, it has been accepted for table purpose as snacks in domestic and international market. The quality of seeds of sixty Spanish germplasm accessions of peanut were analyzed for their glucose, sucrose, raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) and fatty acid profile. Significant genotypic differences were observed for all the traits. Among the saccharides, sucrose accounted for the major fraction with a mean value of 4.6% in the range of 2.44-7.61%; the mean value of RFOs was 0.62% in the range of 0.17-1.56% while the mean value for glucose was 0.04% in the range of 0.01-0.11%. The mean oil content was 50.3% in range of 47.0-54.6%. The fatty acid composition consisted 12.4-24.5% palmitic acid, 2.1-5.3% stearic acid, 40.3-51.5% oleic acid and 18.7-40.6% linoleic acid. Glucose content was found to be positively correlated with sucrose and negatively correlated with RFOs. The correlation between oil content and any of glucose, sucrose, or RFOs was not significant. Among the major fatty acids, a negative correlation between oleic acid linoleic acid was observed. Some genotypes were found to be superior individually for different traits and few were superior for multiple traits. NRCG 14436 was identified for high sucrose, low glucose and low oil content; NRCG 14470 was identified for low RFOs, low glucose and high oil content, and high O/L ratio; while NRCG 14404 was identified for low RFOs, low glucose and low oil content. High O/L ratio (>2.0) was observed in accessions NRCG 14472 with high oil content. Thus, superior accessions identified for different traits would be useful for peanut breeders looking for germplasm containing high oil, low oil, low RFO, high sucrose, low glucose and high O/L ratio.