Some physical and nutritional properties of cowpea seed (Vigna sinensis L.)

Several physical and nutritional properties of cowpea seed (Vigna sinensis L.) from Antalya was determined. The physical properties of the cowpea seed are necessary for the design of equipment for harvesting, processing, transportating, sorting and separating of seeds. There are linear dimensions, mass, 1000 seed mass, volume, sphericity, surface area, projected area, true and bulk densities, porosity, angle of repose, terminal velocity, static coefficient of friction and geometric mean diameter to consider. The Cowpea seed's average fruit length, width, thickness, the geometric mean diameter, sphericity index, fruit mass, thousand of fruit mass and volume of fruit were 9.28 mm, 6.55 mm, 6.08 mm, 7.16 mm, 77.2%, 0.2063 g, 2050 g and 0.18 cm(-3), respectively. The bulk density, fruit density and porosity were 0.69 g cm(-3), 1.13 g cm(-3) and 38.88%, respectively. The coefficient of static friction on rubber, plywood and galvanized sheet were 0.4511, 0.3965 and 0.3854, respectively. Organic matter content, protein, K, Ca, P and N amount were 90.58%, 20.31%, 0.0058%, 0.00106%, 0.142% and 3.25%, respectively. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.