抄録
The variation in the seed coat colour of adzuki beans among varieties, harvest years and growing locations, using a two-dimentsional colour mapping technique was investigated. It was found that the differences of the seed coat colour among varieties contributed to the variation of chroma (C*) values, while the differences of the seed coat colour among harvest years were associated with lightness (L*) values. The L* values for the seed coat colour increased when the temperature during the maturing period of adzuki beans was low, and decreased when the temperature was high. The difference in the seed coat colour among the samples from different growing locations was much larger in the L* values than the C* values for samples of the same variety. The seed coat colous of adzuki beans harvested in Hokkaido and China had significantly different C* values, and were easily discriminated by the colour mapping method. This study showed that the two-dimensional colour mapping was useful for evaluating the seed coat colour of adzuki beans, which varies among samples of different varieties, harvest years and growing locations.
