STUDIES ON PHYSICAL PROPERTIES AND CHEMICAL MAKE-UP OF HYBRID AND NATIVE VARIETIES OF FLAXSEEDS

The present work reports the physical properties and chemical make-up of two flaxseeds cultivars NL-115 (hybrid) and LM-001 (native) of Indian origin. The flaxseeds cultivars exhibited variations in dimensions include length, width, thickness and diameter increase linearly with increase in moisture content. The retention of moisture by the seeds depends on their chemical constituents.The geometric properties increased as the moisture content increased. The bulk density, rupture force, deformation and energy absorbed decreased linearly while true density, porosity, thousand seed mass, angle of repose and static coefficient of friction increased linearly with increasing moisture content. The dimensional parameters such as length, width and thickness varied from 4.74 to 4.79 mm, 2.41 to 2.47 mm, and 0.98 to 1.10 mm, respectively. While, bulk density, true density, porosity and thousand kernel weight found to vary in the range of 630.03 to 640.66 kg/m3, 866.50to 868.50 kg/m3, 26.23to 27.29% and 7.56to 6.59 g, respectively. The static coefficient of friction found to vary from 0.43 to 0.59 and angle of repose from 270.001to 270. 551. The flaxseed variety NL-115 was found to be slightly larger and cream colored than dark colored LM-001 in appearance.