An Assessment of Variation for Nutritional and Non‐nutritional Carbohydrates in Lentil Seeds (Lens culinaris)

Abstract

Abstract The levels of the raffinose family of α‐galactosides (raffinose, stachyose, verbascose and ciceritol) and of the nutritional carbohydrates (fructose, sucrose and starch) were determined in the seed of a range of lentil lines from germplasm collections and commercial Spanish cultivars. Significant levels of variation were found for all the measured characters, and particularly for the α‐galactosides. The greatest variation was found in verbascose content, which ranged from about 1 % of the seed dry weight to undetectable amounts. The relationship between these chemical components and morphological seed characteristics was assessed. The only significant relationship between the different groups of characteristics was a positive correlation between the level of verbascose and the average seed weight for each genotype.