Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

A novel strategy for rapid identification of the fruits of Illicium verum and Illicium anisatum using electronic nose and tongue technology

Jiao-Long Wang¹, Mei-Bian Hu¹, Zhi-Qiang Wei¹, Wen-Xiang Fan¹, Yu-Jie Liu¹, Chun-Jie Wu¹, Liang Li²

¹College of Pharmacy; ²School of Clinical Medicine, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610037, PR China.

For correspondence:- Liang Li Email: TCMLiLiang@163.com Tel:+862861801001

Accepted: 25 March 2018 Published: 30 April 2018

Citation: Wang J, Hu M, Wei Z, Fan W, Liu Y, Wu C, et al. A novel strategy for rapid identification of the fruits of Illicium verum and Illicium anisatum using electronic nose and tongue technology. Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(4):675-680 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i4.16

© 2018 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To develop an effective and rapid strategy for the identification of fruits of I. verum and I. anisatum based on their odor and taste.

Methods: Electronic nose (E-nose) and electronic tongue (E-tongue) technology was used to identify the fruits of I. verum (FIV) and I. anisatum (FIA). Samples of FIA, FIV, and FIA : FIV mixtures in different proportions (1 : 3, 1 : 1, and 3 : 1) were prepared to evaluate the identification abilities of E-nose and E-tongue methods. Samples were powdered and sifted through a standard sieve (aperture size 355 ± 13 μm) for E-nose analysis. Each sample was refluxed with water for 1 h before E-tongue analysis. The acquired data were analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant factor analysis (DFA).

Results: Based on the signals acquired by E-nose and E-tongue analyses, a total of 90 data points each were used for PCA. The three principal component values for E-nose analysis were PC1 = 93.89 %, PC2 = 6.08 %, and PC3 = 0.03 %, and those for E-tongue analysis were PC1 = 98.72 %, PC2 = 0.68 %, and PC3 = 0.57 %. The sample data were significantly divided into two groups representing FIV and FIA. Furthermore, E-nose and E-tongue assessments combined with PCA and DFA analyses effectively identified FIV, FIA and their mixtures.

Conclusion: The use of E-nose and E-tongue technology is an effective and rapid strategy to identify the fruits of I. verum and I. anisatum and their mixtures. This strategy may also offer an effective method for detection of adulterants

Keywords: Illicium verum, Illicium anisatum, Discrimination, Electronic nose, Electronic tongue, Safety, Principal component analysis, Discriminant factor analy