Twelve peanut lines and the cultivars Tatuí and Tatu were evaluated for grain and oil yield, and seed oil content. The experiments were conducted during the spring summer growing seasons of 1983, 1984 and 1985 at Campinas, 1983 and 1984 at Pindorama and 1985 at Ribeirão Preto Experimental Stations, Instituto Agronômico, State of São Paulo, Brazil. Oil content was determined by the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method. Oil yield was calculated from the grain yield and seed oil content. Most of the treatments yielded as much as the control, cv. Tatu. This indicates that they can be considered as promising materials for breeding programs. The highest grain, and oil yields were obtained with lines 5567, Ca-34 and cv. Tatuí. The highest seed oil content, 50.5%, was observed for line 269, in contrast with 47.2% of the control. The results also showed that the seed oil content affected the relative performance of a line in terms of oil yield. Thus, there are evidences that the seed oil content must be evaluated when choosing parents for crossing or in the final stages of line selection.
peanut lines and cultivars; yield; oil