The basic physical properties of ishimame, a very hard, Virginia-type roasted peanut (literally, “stone bean” in Japanese), were characterized and compared with those of normal roasted peanuts. Clarifying these differences is important because the inadvertent addition of ishimame peanuts to confectionary products will have a negative impact on the texture of the product, resulting in customer complaints. Ishimame peanuts have a compressive strength that is four times greater than normal roasted peanuts, they are smaller in volume, and have higher bulk, particle and true densities; however, no difference in mass is apparent between the two peanut types. The moisture content of ishimame peanuts was also four times higher than that of normal roasted peanuts, and similar to that of unroasted peanuts. It was suggested that ishimame peanuts have the denser internal structure and/or the higher concentration of components in high density than normal roasted peanuts.

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In recent years, as a method of utilizing bamboo forests where expansion is remarkable after logging, crushed bamboo powder was tested for paddy rice cultivation to examine the influence on rice quality of appearance, taste and soil properties. As a result, no significant decrease in yield due to application of bamboo powder was observed, and by lowering the protein content, the taste value was significantly increased compared with the customary group. Furthermore, it contributed to increase soil humus content and improvement of gas phase ratio, and application of 1 t of bamboo powder per 10 a was considered to contribute to improving cultivation environment.

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[in Japanese]

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