• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.98-102
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• 1995

Popped popcorn generally have a regular popping direction and typical shape. But the reason and mechanism are not clear yet. This experiment was carried out to investigate the shape moulding factor of popped popcorn. Pericarp thickness of tip-cap section of kernels is slightly thicker than that of top section and this fact provides the important information to the reason. Popping starts when the moisture pressure of heated popcorn is increased and reaches at the critical pressure. Therefore, in the same moisture pressure conditions, top sections are bursted first because their pericarp section is thinner than that of tip-cap section. At the very moment tip-cap sections pull down the top sections of peri carp as bi-metal does. So kernels which removed tip-cap section showed the irregular popping shape because they lost the tip-cap pericarp function. How-ever, kernels which removed embryo showed the typical popping shape but their popping volume was small due to emition and shortage of critical moisture pressure. But kernels which removed the whole pericarp and top pericarp were not popped at all because moisture was entirely emitting out of kernels. These results suggest that the shape moulding factor of popped popcorn is the pericarp thickness differences between the top and tip-cap section of kernels.