Establishing Near Infra Red Spectroscopy (NIR) Calibration for Starch Analysis in Corn Grain

This study has been carried out to calibrate the starch values of 320 corn samples taken from Soil Products Offices (TMO) in seven different geographical regions of by using an NIR instrument. The corn samples used in the study were selected from the regions where corn production is intensive in Turkey and brought to the laboratory. The corn samples brought to the laboratory were milled and then spectra were formed. Subsequently, the starch values were determined in the laboratory with the use of wet chemical analysis methods. The calibration values generated were R= 0.6410; R2 = 0.4109 Standard Deviation = 4.4208, R = 0.5854 from the validation set; R2 = 0.3427 Standard Deviation = 4.5662. The calibration interval in the study was 44.53 and 45.72, respectively. This study has concluded that more samples representing the 7 different regions in Turkey for the starch contents of corn are needed in order to generate scientifically reliable results with the FT-NIR device