Effect of harvest date and maturity upon free amino acid levels in three varieties of peanuts

An improved method for the extraction of free amino acids and a peptide of unknown composition with a methanol:chloroform:water mixture (60:25:15; v:v:v) was described. The largest variations were related to maturity. If the amino acids were ranked in descending order, glutamic acid, followed by asparagine (including asparagine, glutamine, threonine, and serine), topped the list in the mature and low intermediate groups, except in Valencia at 141 days. The peptide and phenylalanine were usually in the top six, while aspartic acid occurred there fairly often. Arginine was the highest in immature peanuts. Proline was found in higher concentrations in immature peanuts than previously reported. The presence of two nonprotein amino acids (γ‐methyleneglutamine and γ‐methyleneglutamic acid) in mature kernels was confirmed.