By Zhari Ismail
A combination of an electronic tongue and an electronic nose dedicated for the classification of medicinal plant extracts using data fusion technique has been developed. The electronic nose consists of an array of gas sensors based on piezoelectric principles using lipids and gas chromatographic stationary phase materials of different selectivity patterns.
The sensors measure the frequency changes due to adsorption of volatile vapors on its surfaces. Meanwhile, the 'electronic tongue' consists of lipid polymer membrane electrodes (to mimic human tongue) for the analysis of liquid samples. The measurement principle is based on potentiometric principles, where the voltage difference between the electrodes and reference electrode are monitored. Data from the electronic nose and tongue were analyzed separately using multivariate data analysis based on principal component analysis and information from both the sensors were extracted. The sensors containing important information are merged together to improve the performance of the combined sensors. Multivariate statistical methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used for classifying the samples, although techniques such as Discriminate Analysis (DA) and Principle Component Regression (PCR) analysis. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) could be used for the Detection, Classification and Quantification of the samples.
The instrument is to be of particular significance for the detection of taste and smell. Possible application of the instrument could be in…
* The herbal and pharmaceutical industries to verify raw materials, intermediates and finished products at various stages of manufacturing process
* The food industry including quality assessment in food production, control of food processing, inspection of fish, checking rancidity of edible oils, monitoring of food and beverage odor.
* The cosmetic and toiletries sectors for quality- monitoring of flavors and fragrances.
(ResearchSEA)
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