Abstract:Moisture content is an important indicator of lotus seed quality.A nondestructive testing method was proposed here，based on near-infrared spectroscopy，that could rapidly determine the moisture content of lotus seeds.Spectral information was collected from lotus seeds from Wuyishan and Guangchang at four drying stages，and partial least squares （PLS）was used to develop a model for determining moisture content.The results showed that the prediction determination coefficient （RP2）of the PLS model based on the original spectrum was 0.928 3，the root mean square error of prediction （RMSEP）was 0.112 5，and the residual predictive deviation（RPD）was 3.734 3，after mixing the data of two kinds of lotus seeds.Spectra were preprocessed using multivariate scatter correction （MSC），which was found to be a more effective preprocessing method than savitzkygolay（SG），standard normal variable transformation（SNV），or normalization.After MSC，the RP2，RMSEP and RPD were 0.945 3，0.108 3 and 4.275 0，respectively.The results demonstrated the feasibility of nondestructive methods for moisture detection in lotus seeds，by combining chemometric methods with spectral reflectance collected using portable near-infrared spectrometry.