Optical Sum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy of Cracked Non-Glutinous Rice ( Oryza sativa L.) Kernels

In order to study the correlation between the cracking of rice (Oryza sativa L.) kernels and the molecular structure of the amylopectin in them, we attempted optical sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy in the C-H stretching vibration region for normal and cracked japonica non-glutinous rice kernels. The samples were Koshihikari and Nipponbare. In Nipponbare, the width of the SFG spectrum peak at 2915 cm- 1 of the cracked rice kernels was broader than that of the normal ones, while for Koshihikari there was no clear difference. The width of the 2915 cm- 1 peak is suggested to originate from the variety of the higher-order structure of the saccharide chains in amylopectin. Although this is a tentative result, this method is shown to have a potential of serving for preventing the cracking of the rice kernels.