Investigating the Intrinsic Physical and Technological Properties of Naturally Grown Christ’s Thorn (Paliurus spina-christi Mill. L.) in Türkiye: A Comprehensive Analysis

The physico-mechanic properties of Christ’s Thorn (Paliurus spina-christi Mill. L.) seeds are crucial for optimizing the design and efficiency of equipment used in handling, harvesting, processing, and storage. This study investigated various physico-mechanic and technological characteristics of Christ’s Thorn seeds, including dimensional attributes, thousand seed mass, aritmetic and geometric mean diameter, sphericity, bulk an true densities, rupture strength, porosity, terminal velocity and projected areas. The findings indicated that the thousand-seed weight was between 19.13- 23.17 g, the geometric mean diameter was 3.28 mm, aritmetic mean diameter was 3.51 mm and the sphericity was determined to be 93.50%. Furthermore, the projected area was measured as varied from 13.85 to 15.53 mm2, bulk density values ranged from 689.00 to 536.33 kg m-³ across different moisture levels while its true density varied between 1092 and 1004 kg m-³. In addition to these, rupture strength decreased from from 23.16 to 13.32 N mm-2, terminal velocity values were found between 2.97 and 3.40 m s⁻¹, porosity varied from 36.9% and 46.58% respectively. This study further explored the physical and technological attributes of Christ’s Thorn, including length, width, thickness, sphericity, projected area, porosity, terminal velocity, and rupture strength, while also assessing the interrelationships among these parameters. These properties are essential in the development of agricultural machinery, as they directly influence key design aspects. The experimental measurements were conducted using methodologies, including a biological material testing device, image processing techniques, and a terminal velocity measurement instrument, ensuring precise and reliable data acquisition.