Analysis of Protein Content in Rices Using Fast Neutron Reaction 14N(n,2 n) N13

Protein content in rices such as IR33, Cisadane, and Rojolele has beendetermined using fast neutron activation analysis (FNAA). The existence ofprotein is characterized using Eγ = 0.511 MeV from nuclear reaction14N (n,2 n) N13. Two methods of FNAA for quantification were used. Inabsolute method, the protein content was determined by measuring the neutronflux using Al foil, and in comparative additive method it was determined bycomparing to the known N standard which was additive to the samples. Theexperimental results show that the protein content in those rices ranges from(6.33 ± 0.05) % to (6.9 ± 0.11) % in weight. From the reference, thegrained rices contained 6.8 % in weight of protein. The value of the proteinstandard from the reference was in range of the experimental result. Howeverthere were still differences due to nuclear data stability of flux neutron,flux sample composition and the utilization of detector. (author)