The oil radish siliques maturation occurs in a non-uniform way, which makes it difficult to define the ideal harvesting time in order to produce high quality seeds. In addition, the high lipid content of the seed may hamper its preservation. To evaluate the effect of the maturation stage at harvesting on the physiological quality and chemical composition of the oil radish seeds stored under different conditions, the siliques were harvested at three stages, according to three colors: green, beige and brown. Seeds from different siliques harvesting stages were stored at ambient conditions and in a cold chamber under dry conditions (10 ºC and 46% RH) and evaluated as to their physiological and health quality and chemical composition before being stored and after 3, 6 and 9 months of storage. The siliques color is not the ideal indicator to define the oil radish seeds harvesting time due to the variation of the maturity and physiological quality of oil radish seeds within the siliques. The oil radish seeds storage in cold chamber preserves the physiological quality as assessed by the emergence test. There were no consistent changes in the centesimal composition of oil radish siliques harvested at different stages of maturation in relation to their color alteration.
Raphanus sativus; storage; maturation