Nutritional Quality of Shelled Lotus Seeds in Different Species at Different Maturation Stages

In this research,the main varieties of lotus seeds in Fujian province—‘Jianxuan No.17’,‘Jianxuan No.35’,‘Space lotus No.35’ and ‘Jingguang No.1’ were selected as experimental subjects. The nutritional quality of three different maturity lotus seeds in milky maturity,wax maturity and maturity period were studied. The results showed that the main changes of the main nutrient contents of fresh lotus seed in the same variety were the same. The nutrient content of fresh lotus seed(except water content)increased with the increasing of maturity and the accumulation of main nutrients such as starch,protein and minerals in lotus seed of milky maturity was not enough. Combined with the factors such as lotus seed yield and comprehensive utilization of resources,fresh lotus in milky stage was unsuitable as a deep processing raw material for lotus seeds. Comparison of different varieties of fresh lotus,the water contents of ‘Space lotus No. 35’ milky maturity period was the highest,which was(80.07±2.29) g/100 g fresh weight and it was suitable for fresh food or processed into quick-frozen fresh lotus seed,the ripening period of ‘Jianxuan No. 35’ had higher starch content and the highest protein contents,(61.27±0.33) g/100 g fresh weigh and(23.07±0.26) g/100 g fresh weight,respectively,which was suitable for deep processing of lotus seeds;the ripening period of ‘Jianxuan 17’ had the highest mineral content,which was(5.73±0.02) g/100 g fresh weight and it was suitable as raw material for shelled lotus seed conditioning food. The research results could provide a theoretical basis for screening out suitable shelled lotus seed varieties and conducting research on related quality characteristics.