Determination of the fatty acid composition of sunflower (Helianthus annua L.) seeds by near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy was examined. Sunflower seeds were husked (removed from their hulls by a husking machine or manually with a knife). NIR spectra of these seeds were scanned from 1100 to 2500 nm at 2-nm intervals in a whole-grain cell with a wide-angle moving drawer for machine-husked seeds or in a single-grain cup for a manually husked single-grain seed. The extracted oils from machine-husked seeds also were scanned by sandwiching them between a pair of slide glasses to create a thin layer and by placing them on a syrup cup. For extracted oil, the absorption band around 1720 nm filled out to the shorter wavelength region in the NIR second-derivative spectra as the percentage of the linoleic acid moiety increased, because linoleic acid absorbs in this region. On the other hand, for husked seeds and for a single-grain seed, as the percentage of linoleic acid increased, the trough at 1724 nm where oleic and saturated acids absorb decreased in the second-derivative NIR spectra. Determination of the fatty acid composition of sunflower seeds could be carried out successfully according to the NIR spectral pattern for both extracted oil (r = -0.989) and kernel seed (r = -0.993). This is important, especially for a manually husked single-grain seed (r = -0.971), because it can still be germinated after such nondestructive analysis.
