CHEMICAL-COMPOSITION OF PEA-SEEDS AS RELATED TO SEED YIELD UNDER ARIDAND SEMIARID MEDITERRANEAN ENVIRONMENTS

Little has been published on the chemical composition of pea (Pisum sa tivum L.) seeds and its relationship to seed yield. This study was con ducted to investigate the relationships between seed protein, lipid, s tarch and sugars content of pea with seed yield under arid and semiari d Mediterranean environments. Twenty pea genotypes were grown at an ar id (JUST) and semiarid (Maru) locations in northern Jordan. With the e xception of glucose and fructose, the variation in protein, lipid, suc rose and starch was caused by environmental conditions. Pea grown at t he semiarid location exhibited higher yield and the lower protein, glu cose, fructose and sucrose contents than those grown at the arid locat ion. Except for lipid and starch, high seed yields of genotypes were a ssociated with low contents of protein and sugars, indicating that one -sided selection for high seed yield tends to reduce the nutritional q uality of pea seed.