Biosystems Engineering (2004) 89 (1), 109–117

doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2004.06.012
PH—Postharvest Technology

Some Physical Properties of Amaranth Seeds

R. Abalone1; A. Cassinera2; A. Gastón3; M.A. Lara2
1
Fac. de Cs. Exactas Ingenierı́a y Agrimensura, UNR. IFIR (CONICET/UNR), Av. Pellegrini 250, 2000 Rosario, Argentina;
e-mail of corresponding author: rabalone@fceia.unr.edu.ar
2
IFIR (CONICET/UNR), Av. Pellegrini 250, 2000 Rosario, Argentina
3
Consejo de Investigaciones de la UNR, Fac. de Cs. Exactas Ingenierı́a y Agrimensura. UNR, Av. Pellegrini 250, 2000 Rosario,
Argentina; e-mail: analiag@fceia.unr.edu.ar

(Received 13 November 2003; received in revised form 22 June 2004; published online 20 August 2004)

Abstract

Several physical properties of amaranth seeds (Amaranthus cruentus) were evaluated as a function of moisture
content. When moisture content changed from 7
7 to 43
9% d.b., true density decreased from 1390 to 1320 kg
m3, bulk density from 840 to 720 kg m3, specific volume increased from 0
78 to 1
10  103 m3 kg1 and
porosity varied from 0
40 to 0
45. Shrinkage coefficient was found to be 1
25. By means of image analysis,
relevant dimensions were measured as a function of moisture content. In the moisture content range of
9
5–43
6% d.b., the average length, width and thickness were 1
42, 1
29 and 0
87 mm, respectively. The
geometric mean diameter of seed ranged from 1
10 to 1
24 mm, whereas mean sphericity was 0
82. The average
pycnometric volume and area of one grain were 0
65 mm3 and 3
96 mm2, respectively.
r 2004 Silsoe Research Institute. All rights reserved
Published by Elsevier Ltd

1. Introduction and Universidad Nacional Rı́o Cuarto, Córdoba),

Amaranths grains, rediscovered by modern agricul-
ture, have remarkable nutritional properties because of
the amount and quality of protein (16–18%) and of
lysine and triptophan content, in low proportion in
other cereals. Owing to the outstanding nutritional,
industrial and pharmacological applications, interna-
tional demand for this grain is increasing. Amaranth is
common in Peru, Bolivia and Mexico. In the United
States, about 2400 ha are planted in Great Plains and
Midwest states, but the largest producer is China,
yielding 86 000 tones per year (Ag Innovation News,
2003).
Argentina has potential areas suitable for the cultiva-
tion of amaranth located mainly in Jujuy, Santiago del
Estero, Córdoba, Eastern La Pampa and Western
Buenos Aires (Covas, 1994). At present, the growth is
reduced to experimental stations (Universidad Nacional
de La Pampa, Estación Anguil (INTA) in La Pampa
where research programs focused on agronomic aspects
are being conducted to promote the cultivation.
Amaranth grain yields are extremely variable dependent
upon cultivar selection and the growing season, parti-
cularly with regard to available soil moisture. Tosi and
Ré (2003) have reported grain yields from 1800 to
2300 kg ha1 and exceptionally, 4500 kg ha1.
Proper postharvest handling is critical for producing
high-quality grain and appropriate technology for this
new crop now requires to be developed.
Due to the smallness of amaranth, conventional
drying systems are not adapted to the characteristics
of this seed and the use of silos for drying is limited
because of the important pressure drop developed
through the depth of the grain bed. To adapt an existing
industrial dryer or design a new one, physical and
transport properties or drying parameters of the grain
must be known, and the available information on these
topics is rather scarce (Tosi et al., 1999; Lema et al.,

1537-5110/$30.00 109 r 2004 Silsoe Research Institute. All rights reserved

Published by Elsevier Ltd
110 R. ABALONE ET AL.

Notation

A, B, C length, width, thickness of grain, mm W moisture content, % d.b.

De equivalent diameter, mm Wi initial moisture content, % d.b.
Dg geometric mean diameter, mm b deep bed porosity, dimensionless
e1 , e2 semi-axis of oblate spheroid, mm b; b volume shrinkage coefficient, dimensionless
e3 ; e4 ; semi-axis of solid of revolution, mm rt true density of moist amaranth grains,
e5 ; e6 kg m3
mgrain total mass of sample, g r0 density at a moisture content of 0% d.b.,
ms dry mass, g kg m3
mw mass of water, g rs density of dry solids, kg m3
m1 dry mass of one kernel, mg rw density of water, kg m3
N grain number, dimensionless rb bulk density or apparent density of a deep-
R2 coefficient of determination, dimensionless bed of grains, kg m3
S oblate surface area of oblate spheroid, mm2 n specific volume (volume per unit of dry
S solid surface area of solid of revolution, mm2 matter), m3 kg1
S sph surface area of equivalent sphere, mm2 n0 specific volume at a moisture content of 0%
Va volume of air, mm3 d.b., m3 kg1
Vb bulk volume, mm3 ni specific volume at initial moisture content,
Vg pycnometric volume of one kernel, mm3 m3 kg1
V grain volume of grains, mm3 f grain sphericity, dimensionless
Vs volume of dry solids, mm3 x eccentricity, dimensionless
Vw volume of water, mm3

2001; Calzetta Resio et al., 2003; Vizcarra Mendoza
et al., 2003). Size, surface area and volume are required
in different handling and processing operations and are
also needed as input parameters for the prediction of
transport properties and drying rates of grains through
simulation models. In particular, the estimation of the
effective diffusion coefficient of water is affected by the
geometry assumed to approximate the grain shape
(Gastón et al., 2002; Kang & Delwiche, 2000).
The objective of present work is to measure some
physical properties, such as true density, bulk density,
specific volume, porosity, shrinkage coefficient, geo-
metric dimensions, volume and surface area of amar-
anth seeds.
The seeds were divided into lots and they were
conditioned to obtain moisture contents in the moisture
content range of 7–44% d.b. by adding pre-determined
quantities of distilled water and mixing for 30 min. The
prepared samples were sealed in hermetic flasks and
stored in a refrigerator for 2 days for the moisture to
distribute uniformly throughout the sample.
Before the start of each test, the samples were
removed from the refrigerator and allowed to equili-
brate to room temperature. The moisture content
was determined using the ASAE standard method
(ASAE 1984). Oven temperature and heating period
were set at 901C and 48 h (Lema et al., 2001),
respectively.

2.2. Physical properties of amaranth seeds

2. Materials and methods
2.1. Sample preparation
Amaranth seeds (Amaranthus cruentus) from the 2000
crop at the experimental station of Universidad Nacio-
nal de La Pampa, La Pampa, Argentina, were used in
the tests. Amaranth is currently harvested at about 30%
d.b., and then dried to 11% d.b. for preservation. The
grain was hand-cleaned to remove any foreign material
before being stored in plastic bags.
A standard pycnometric method (Mohsenin, 1970)
was used to determine the volume of a weighed sample
for different moisture contents (pycnometer volume:
(10
070
1) ml; toluene density: (880710) kg m3). The
mass of the sample was measured by means of an
electronic balance (Mettler, type H5) reading to 0
001 g.
Another grain sample was poured into a vessel of known
volume (10
8 ml) and weighed to determine bulk density.
Five replicates were conducted for each moisture
content.
 SOME PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF AMARANTH SEEDS 111

A simple parametric model was used to describe the grain porosity is zero, r0 is equal to the density of dry
dependence of physical properties with moisture content solids rs .
(Zogzas et al., 1994). The density of the moist amaranth Bulk density rb or apparent density of a deep-bed of
grains or true density rt in kg m3 is defined as: grains is defined by:
mgrain ms þ mw mgrain
rt ¼ ¼ ð1Þ rb ¼ ð8Þ
V grain V s þ V w þ V a Vb

where mgrain is mass of the sample in g; Vgrain is volume where V b is the bulk volume in mm3 including volume of
of grains in mm3; ms is dry mass in g; mw is mass of void spaces.
water in g; and Vs, Vw and Va, are the volumes in mm3 Deep bed porosity is:
of dry solids, water and air, respectively. It was assumed r
b ¼ 1  b ð9Þ
that the mass of air is negligible. rt
Density of dry solid rs in kg m3 is defined by:
ms 2.3. Geometrical dimensions of amaranth seeds
rs ¼ ð2Þ
Vs
In order to determine the size and shape of the seeds,
and the specific volume n (volume per unit of dry matter)
the images of individual grains were acquired. A 23 inch
in m3 kg1 by:
charge-coupled device (CCD) video camera (XC-711P,
V grain Sony Corp., Japan) was used (Granitto et al., 2002),
n¼ ð3Þ
ms connected to a colour frame grabber (IC-PCI, Imaging
Technology Inc., USA) with 8-bit reference tables per
The volume shrinkage coefficient b is defined by the
colour channel. Illumination was provided by a 150 W
equation:

 light source (Fostec Inc., USA) through a quadruple
W fibre optic bundle of 12
7 mm diameter, with the four
n ¼ n0 1 þ b ð4Þ
100 guides in a symmetric arrangement to produce an even
illumination with good texture enhancement.
where W is moisture content in % d.b. and n0 is specific Grains were chosen at random and exposed to the
volume in m3 kg1 at a moisture content of 0% d.b. camera with two orientations: horizontally and verti-
Other researchers (Saravacos & Maroulis, 2001) cally, as shown in Fig. 1. Images were taken with a
define the volume shrinkage coefficient by the following 768  512 pixel resolution on a blue background, which
relationship, which represents the proportion of initial can be easily subtracted by standard segmentation
specific volume that shrinks as water is removed: routines because of the difference in colour with the
b ðW i  W Þ seeds. From the binarised images, length A, width B and
n ¼ ni  ð5Þ
rw 100 thickness C, in mm, were determined (Granitto et al.,
2002; Keefe et al., 1986; Yutaka et al., 1982).
where W i is the initial moisture content of the moist Geometric mean diameter Dg in mm and sphericity f
food material in % d.b., ni is the specific volume at values were found using the following expressions
initial moisture content in m3 kg1 and rw is water (Mohsenin, 1970):
density in kg m3. The symbol b is introduced to
1
identify this coefficient from the previous one. The Dg ¼ ðABC Þ3 ð10Þ
shrinkage coefficient b thus defined varies between 0
(no shrinkage) and 1 (full shrinkage). Both coefficients 1
ðABC Þ3
are simply related by: f¼ ð11Þ

A
b
b¼ ð6Þ
n0 rw
2.4. Volume, shape and surface area of amaranth seeds
Combining Eqns (1) and (3), leads to the following
non-linear relationship between the grain density and
If the number of grains N contained in the sample is
moisture content:
known, the pycnometric volume of one grain V g in mm3
r0 ð100 þ W Þ can be determined from the pycnometric volume of the
rt ¼ ð7Þ
ð100 þ bW Þ sample V grain :
where r0 is the density at a moisture content of 0% d.b. V grain
Vg ¼ ð12Þ
If the volume of air pores V a is negligible so that the N
112 R. ABALONE ET AL.

Fig. 1. Image of amaranth grain with principal measured

dimensions: A, length; B, width; C, thickness

The shape of amaranth (Fig. 1) was approximated by

three geometric shapes illustrated in Fig. 2(a)–2(c), being
in all cases the volume of geometric shapes the same as
the grain pycnometric volume V g .
In the first case [Fig. 2(a)], an equivalent sphere was
assumed and the equivalent diameter De in mm was
determined by:

1
6 3
De ¼ Vg ð13Þ
p

Evaluation of grain surface is straightforward and will

be denoted by S sph , in mm2.
In the second case [Fig. 2(b)], by rotating an ellipse
about its minor axis an oblate spheroid was generated to
approximate the grain shape. The long semi-axis e1 of
the ellipse in mm was chosen to be the average of Fig. 2. Approximation of amaranth shape: (a) sphere; (b)
measure dimensions A and B: oblate spheroid; (c) solid of revolution; De, equivalent diameter;

 e1 to e6, semi-axes
1 AþB
e1 ¼ ð14Þ
2 2
 SOME PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF AMARANTH SEEDS 113

and the short semi-axis e2 in mm was calculated so that Table 1

the geometric volume of the ellipsoid equals the Mean measured values of gravimetric properties of amaranth in
the moisture content range of 7 . 7–43 . 9% d.b.
pycnometric volume Vg of the grain:
4 Moisture Total mass Dry mass Volume Grain
V g ¼ pe2 e21 ð15Þ content % d.b. (mgrain), g (ms), g (Vgrain), Number
3 mm3 (N)
The surface area of an oblate spheroid Soblate in mm2
7
7 7
114 6
6 5100 9500
can be calculated to estimate the grain surface, accord- 14
8 7
006 6
10 5200 8760
ing to the following equation (Mohsenin, 1970): 17
2 7
143 6
09 5200 8750
20
6 7
105 5
89 5200 8460
e22 1þx
S oblate ¼ 2p e21 þ p ln ð16Þ 22
5 7
071 5
77 5300 8290
x 1x 25
6 6
636 5
28 4900 7580
29
0 6
333 4
91 4700 7050
where the eccentricity x is given by:
35
3 6
349 4
69 4800 6740
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi

2 43
9 6
163 4
28 4700 6150
e2
x¼ 1 ð17Þ
e1
In the third case, in order to improve the geometric
approximation of the actual shape of amaranth, two volume increased from 0
78 to 1
10  103 m3 kg1
intersecting ellipses were used to fit the grain silhouette and bulk density decreased from 840 to 720 kg m3 with
as closer as possible [Fig. 2(c)] and then rotated about the increase of moisture content from 7
7 to 43
9% d.b.
the minor axis to generate a solid of revolution. One The following linear correlations were derived from
ellipse is characterised by semi-axes e3 and e4, and the data:
other by semi-axes e5 and e6. Two of these semi-axes
were chosen to be equal to mean measured dimensions: n ¼ 0
71  103 ð1 þ 0
0125 W Þ ð20Þ


1 AþB
e3 ¼ ð18Þ
2 2 rb ¼ ð869  3
50 W Þ ð21Þ

C
e6 ¼ ð19Þ
2 0
99 and 0
87, respectively.
The other two semi-axes, e4 and e5, were determined
so as to make the relative difference between geometric
volume and grain pycnometric volume negligible
(5  104%) in comparison to the relative error (5%)
involved in the grain pycnometric volume measurement.
Geometric volume and surface areas of the solid of
revolution were calculated by rotation of the area and
the boundary shown in Fig. 2(c) about the Y axis of
symmetry, respectively.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Physical properties of amaranth seeds
Table 1 shows the mean measured values of mass of
sample mgrain, dry mass ms and volume of sample Vgrain
together with the number of grains N contained in each
sample.
Applying Eqns (1), (3), (8) and (9) true density rt ,
specific volume n, bulk density rb and porosity b were
determined for each moisture content.
Figures 3 and 4 display specific volume n and bulk
density rb as function of moisture content. Specific
with values for the coefficient of determination R2 of
The results for bulk density are in accordance with
those presented for sunflower (Gupta & Das, 1997),
guna (Aviara et al., 1999), green gram (Nimkar &
Chattopadhyay, 2001), Turkish mahaleb (Aydin et al.,
2002) and cotton (Özarslan, 2002). Vizcarra Mendoza et
al. (2003) reported for the variety Amaranthus hipocon-
driacus 860 kg m3 for bulk density, without reference of
the moisture range considered. Compared to quinoa
seed, a pseudocereal of similar characteristics, in the
moisture content range of 7–25% d.b., amaranth bulk
density was 15% higher than those reported by Vilche
et al. (2003).
Comparing Eqn (20) with Eqn (4) the shrinkage
coefficient b and the specific volume n0 were determined,
giving values of 1
25 and of 0
71  103 m3 kg1,
respectively. b is calculated from Eqn (6), giving a
value of 0
89. The density r0 (the reciprocal of n0 ) has a
value of 1411 kg m3.
Figure 5 displays true density rt as function of
moisture content. True density decreased from 1390 to
1320 kg m3 in the moisture range of 7
7–43
9% d.b.
Vizcarra Mendoza et al. (2003) reported for Amaranthus
hipocondriacus a value of 1370 kg m3. In order to verify
the parametric model presented previously (Section 3.2),
114 R. ABALONE ET AL.

1.2 1420

1400
-1

1.1
Specific volume v, 10-3m kg

True density
, kgm-3

3

1380
1.0

i
1360

0.9 1340

0.8 1320

1300
0.7
10 20 30 40 10 20 30 40
Moisture content W,% d.b. Moisture content W,% d.b.

Fig. 3. Specific volume as function of moisture content. Fig. 5. True density as function of moisture content.
, experimental data; —— , linear fit , experimental data; —— , predicted values with Eqn (22)

800 0.48

840
Bulk density
, kgm-3

0.44
800
Porosity b
b

760
0.40

720

0.36
680
10 20 30 40 10 20 30 40
Moisture content W,% d.b. Moisture content W,% d.b.
Fig. 4. Bulk density as function of moisture content. Fig. 6. Deep-bed porosity as function of moisture content.
, experimental data; —— , linear fit , experimental data; —— , linear fit

b and r0 values were introduced in Eqn (7) giving:
1411ð100 þ W Þ
rt ¼
ð100 þ 1
25 W Þ
True density calculated with Eqn (22) was compared
to measured values in Fig. 5 showing small deviations
between them. True density bears a non-linear decreas-
ing relationship with moisture content, different from
the linear decreasing trend reported for guna (Aviara et
al., 1999), green gram (Nimkar & Chattopadhyay,
2001), Turkish mahaleb (Aydin, 2002) and cotton
(Özarslan, 2002) and opposite to the increasing linear
trend reported for quinoa (Vilche et al., 2003) and
sunflower (Gupta & Das, 1997).
Deep bed porosity varied from 0
40 to 0
45 (Fig. 6),
showing an increasing linear dependence with moisture
ð22Þ content expressed by:
b ¼ ð0
38 þ 0
0016 W Þ ð23Þ
with a value for the coefficient of determination R2 of
0
75.
In the moisture content range of 7
7–43
9% d.b.,
porosity only increased 12
5% in contrast with the wide
variation reported for quinoa (Vilche et al., 2003) of
about 125
8% in the moisture range of 4
6–25
8% d.b.
On average porosity of amaranth was found to be of the
same order as wheat, shelled corn and sorghum
(Brooker et al., 1974).
 SOME PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF AMARANTH SEEDS 115

Table 2
Mean measured dimensions of amaranth grains in the moisture content range of 9 . 5–43 . 6% d.b.

Moisture content Length (A), Width (B), Thickness (C), Geometric Mean Diameter Sphericity
% d.b. mm mm mm (Dg), mm (f)
9
5 1
35 1
22 0
81 1
10 0
81
15
5 1
40 1
26 0
84 1
14 0
82
21
0 1
40 1
27 0
87 1
15 0
83
30
5 1
44 1
29 0
89 1
18 0
82
43
6 1
50 1
37 0
93 1
24 0
83

3.2. Geometrical dimensions of amaranth seeds

The size of the seeds were determined at five different 0.8

Pycnometric volume Vg , mm3

moisture content level of 9
5, 15
5, 21
0, 30
5, 43
6% d.b.
For each moisture content, 40 kernel were measured,
mean values of dimensions A, B and C were determined 0.7
(Table 2) and correlated with moisture content giving
the following equations:
A ¼ ð1
319 þ 0
00405 W Þ ð24Þ 0.6

B ¼ ð1
183 þ 0
00409 W Þ ð25Þ

C ¼ ð0
787 þ 0
00335 W Þ
with values for the coefficient of determination R2 of
0
96, 0
96 and 0
95, respectively.
Geometric mean diameter and sphericity (Table 2)
were found to bear a linear relationship with moisture
content expressed by the following correlations:
Dg ¼ ð1
071 þ 0
00385 W Þ
f ¼ ð0
813 þ 0
000365 W Þ
both with a coefficient of determination R2 of 0
99.
In the range of moisture content considered
(9
5–43
6% d.b.) geometric mean diameter increased
12
7% varying from 1
10 to 1
24 mm. Amaranth
sphericity has an average value of 0
82, which is 5%
higher than the averaged value reported for quinoa of
0
78 in the moisture content range of 4
6–25
8% d.b.
(Vilche et al., 2003). Amaranth sphericity increased
1
2% exhibiting a weaker dependence with moisture
content than the one obtained for quinoa of 3
2%.
3.3. Volume, shape and surface area of amaranth seeds
The pycnometric volume of one grain was calculated
from the measured pycnometric volume of the samples
presented in Table 1 using Eqn (12). The number of
grains N contained in a sample (listed in Table 1) was
estimated as the ratio of the known dried mass of the
sample ms to the mass of one dried grain m1. In order to
0.5
ð26Þ
10 20 30 40
Moisture content W,% d.b.
Fig. 7. Pycnometric volume of one grain as function of moisture
content. , experimental data; —— , linear fit
ð27Þ
determine the mass of one dried grain, the mass of a
ð28Þ sample of 15 000 dried grains was measured by
analytical balance (Mettler, type H5), giving m1 a value
of (69
6370
01) mg. The variation of one grain volume
with moisture content was represented by the following
correlation depicted in Fig. 7:
V g ¼ ð0
493 þ 0
00611 W Þ ð29Þ
with a value for the coefficient of determination R2 of
0
99.
The characteristic dimensions of the different geo-
metric shapes, selected to approximate the seed shape
were correlated with moisture content.
The equivalent diameter of the sphere having the
same pycnometric volume of the grain was expressed by:
De ¼ ð0
987 þ 0
00341 W Þ ð30Þ
with a value for the coefficients of determination R2 of
0
99.
If the grain is represented by an oblate spheroid, the
ellipsoid semi-axis dependence with moisture content
116 R. ABALONE ET AL.

Table 3
Measured pycnometric volume and calculated geometric area of one grain in the moisture content range of 9 . 5–43 . 6% d.b.

Moisture content % Volume (Vg), Equivalent sphere Oblate spheroid area Solid of revolution
d.b. mm3 area (Ssph), mm2 (Soblate), mm2 area (Ssolid ), mm2

9
5 0
55 3
26 3
59 3
60

15
5 0
59 3
40 3
73 3
74
21
0 0
62 3
53 3
86 3
88
30
5 0
68 3
75 4
10 4
12
43
6 0
76 4
04 4
43 4
47

were found to be:
e1 ¼ ð0
625 þ 0
00203 W Þ
e2 ¼ ð0
308 þ 0
00119 W Þ
2 be 0
89.
with values for the coefficient of determination R of
0
96 and 0
98, respectively.
In the solid of revolution case, the semi-axis of the
ellipsoids were found to bear the following relationship
with moisture content:
e3 ¼ ð0
625 þ 0
00203 W Þ
e4 ¼ ð0
231 þ 0
00098 W Þ
e5 ¼ ð0
481 þ 0
00157 W Þ
e6 ¼ ð0
393 þ 0
00168 W Þ
2
with values for the coefficient of determination R of
0
96, 0
95, 0
88 and 0
91, respectively.
Table 3 lists the grain pycnometric volume and
calculated surface areas associated to each representa-
tion. Results show that the surface area calculated with
the solid of revolution is 10% greater than the surface of
the equivalent sphere. No significant differences (less
than 1%) were obtained between the oblate spheroid
and the solid of revolution shape. Average grain surface
based on solid of revolution shape was found to be
3
96 mm2.
4. Conclusions
In this work, true density, specific volume, bulk
density, porosity and shrinkage coefficient of amaranth
grain (Amaranthus cruentus) were experimentally mea-
sured and correlated with moisture content.
True density decreased from 1390 to 1320 kg m3,
showing a non-linear relationship when moisture con-
tent changed from 7
7 to 43
9% d.b.
In the same range the other gravimetric pro-
perties showed a linear dependence with moisture
content. Specific volume increased from 0
78 to
1
10  103 m3 kg1, bulk density decreased from 840
to 720 kg m3 and porosity varied from 0
40 to 0
45.
ð31Þ Shrinkage coefficient was found to be 1
25. If it is
defined as the proportion of initial specific volume
ð32Þ that shrinks as water is removed, was found to
Relevant dimensions of the grain were measured and
correlations with moisture content were obtained in the
moisture content range of 9
5–43
6% d.b. On average,
length, width and thickness were 1
42, 1
29 and 0
87 mm,
respectively. The geometric mean diameter of seed
ð33Þ varied from 1
10 to 1
24 mm, whereas mean sphericity
was 0
82. The average pycnometric volume of one grain
ð34Þ was 0
65 mm3.
Three different geometries (equivalent sphere, oblate
ð35Þ spheroid, solid of revolution) having the same pycno-
metric volume as the grain were assumed to approx-
ð36Þ
imate amaranth shape and calculate the grain surface
area. Based on the solid of revolution shape, the
estimated surface area was on average 3
96 mm2, being
this values 10% greater than that of the equivalent
sphere.
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