Investigation of the Effects of Irrigation and Nutrient Treatments on Biophysical and Biomechanical Properties of Safflower Seed

Safflower is a strategic plant regarding to its valuable nutrition value (45% extractable oil) and industrial uses. Due to massive import of edible oil to the country as well as high potential for safflower cultivation, the research on production of safflower for oil extrusion purpose is of remarkable importance. The design of various processing and oil extraction units and also their optimization which are in relation to seed attributes is essential. In this paper the effects of different irrigation and nutrient treatments on some important physical and mechanical properties of IL111 varieties of safflower seed were investigated. The measured properties included size, mass, volume, surface area, arithmetic and geometric mean diameter, sphericity, bulk and true densities, porosity, static and dynamic coefficient of friction, rupture force, deformation at rupture point, rupture energy, modulus of elasticity and seed hardness. The results indicated a significant effect of treatments on the biophysical and biomechanical properties at p ≤ 0.01. The maximum seed mass, geometric mean diameter and rupture energy were obtained when the (cg) treatment applied i.e. “Cut-off irrigation at the growth stage and bio sulfur nutrition”. Seed mass was found to be 0.040 gr to 0.055 gr. Results also showed a significant effect of geometric mean diameter on mass and rupture energy and also mass on seed hardness. Direct correlations observed between seed mass and rupture energy, which indicates that for larger and heavier seeds, much more energy required for oil extraction. The maximum rupture energy was measured as 0.033 J.