Application of the Peleg model was investigated for predicting water absorption by five winter- and five spring-planted chickpea genotypes during soaking between temperature (T) of 20 and 100degreesC. The Peleg model can predict kinetics of the chickpea soaking till equilibrium using short-term data at the given conditions. Its specific form for infinite time may also be used to estimate equilibrium moisture content (M-e) at T greater than or equal to 40degreesC. Spring and winter chickpeas showed no significant difference (P < 0.05) in the Peleg rate constant (K-1) and Peleg capacity constant (K-2) within and between the groups at all temperatures except for K, at T < 40degreesC, The discrepancy for K, was attributed to characteristic water permeabilities of spring and winter chickpeas which were prominent at T < 40&DEG;C. The Peleg constant K, decreased from 17.1 x 10(-3) to 0.95 x 10(-3) h %(-1) for the spring chickpeas, and from 22.2 x 10(-3) to 1.02 x 10(-3) h %(-1) for the winter chickpeas with increasing temperature from 20 to 100&DEG;C. An Arrhenius plot for K, exhibited a slope change around 55&DEG;C corresponding to approximate gelatinization temperature of the chickpea samples. The Peleg constant K2 for the samples linearly increased from 7.26 x 10(-3) to 9.48 x 10(-3) %(-1) with increasing temperature from 20 to 100&DEG;C. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.