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Determination of Ginseng with Different Ages Using a Taste-Sensing System
Abstract
In the medicinal herb market, adulteration of ginseng at different ages is commonly observed, which harms the health of consumers. Changes in the taste properties of ginseng at different ages were investigated using an intelligent taste-sensing system with artificial lipid-based membrane sensors and an ultraviolet spectrophotometer. It was found that the ginsenoside content increased linearly with increasing age, with the determination coefficient (R2) reaching 0.951. Results from the taste-sensing system provided rich information for the tested ginseng samples. The radar curve of taste value indicated that ginseng samples of different ages showed various taste characteristics and some certain tendencies. A linear correlation was established between ginseng age and the taste values of sourness, saltiness, and umami, with the determination coefficients (R2) being 0.941, 0.943, and 0.974 respectively. Taste data were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant function analysis (DFA). A difference was obtained among groups with the first two PCs reaching 92.25%. While in DFA a significant difference was observed with the first two function scores reaching 99.4%. From the viewpoint of sensor response, the responses of the umami sensor AAE, saltiness sensor CTO, and sourness sensor CAO increased over the first 30 s, while those of the bitterness sensor COO and astringency sensor AE1 decreased and remained at maximum in the negative value continuously, which provided additional information for the determination of ginseng samples at different ages. On the basis of integrated and special taste information, the ginseng growing year might be identified from the taste evaluation angles. A flow chart for further research on the taste features was suggested. This study intimated possible indexes for determining adulteration of ginseng at different ages by using an intelligent taste-sensing system.
... With PCA, the stale fruits and different grades of Lycium fruits can be discriminated using taste characterization. As reported by Cui et al. (2013), the growing years of ginseng were discriminated based on taste data (Cui et al. 2013). The taste-sensing system can be used effectively in the quality control of the Lycium fruits in the market. ...
... With PCA, the stale fruits and different grades of Lycium fruits can be discriminated using taste characterization. As reported by Cui et al. (2013), the growing years of ginseng were discriminated based on taste data (Cui et al. 2013). The taste-sensing system can be used effectively in the quality control of the Lycium fruits in the market. ...
... These linear correlations could be applied for predicting storage time of Lycium fruits based on the high linear relationship, except that R 2 was low for bitterness. These results were same with the linear correlation established between ginseng age and the taste values of sourness, saltiness and umami (Cui et al. 2013). ...
A taste‐sensing system was used to study dried L ycium fruits of different producing year and grades. Physical indexes were measured to classify the grade of L ycium fruits and to find correlation between grade indexes and taste characterization. The least significant difference, principal component analysis and linear regression were applied in the data processing. Significant differences were found for sourness, bitterness, astringency and aftertaste‐ B . Classifications according to producing years and grades were found by principle component analysis. Strong correlations between producing year, grades and taste characterization were found.
Practical Applications
L ycium barbarum L . has been used as traditional medicine in A sian and many countries. This study evaluates the taste characterization and its application in determination of producing years and grades of L ycium fruits. With multivariate analysis, it is possible to detect producing years and grades of dried L ycium fruits with taste characterization, providing evidence for fast adulteration detection of L ycium fruits.
... Among these techniques, potentiometry is the most widely utilized. Currently, three commercialized E-tongues based on the potentiometry sensing mechanism are marketed and employed in various applications, branded as the Astree II (Alpha M.O.S, France) [55], TS-5000Z [56], and SA402B [57] E-(Insent Inc., Atsugishi, Japan) tongues ( Figure 2). ...
... Among these techniques, potentiometry is the most widely utilized. Currently, three commercialized E-tongues based on the potentiometry sensing mechanism are marketed and employed in various applications, branded as the Astree II (Alpha M.O.S, France) [55], TS-5000Z [56], and SA402B [57] E-(Insent Inc., Atsugishi, Japan) tongues ( Figure 2). [55,57] with permission from Elsevier. ...
Bitterness is one of the basic tastes, and sensing bitterness plays a significant role in mammals recognizing toxic substances. The bitter taste of food and oral medicines may decrease consumer compliance. As a result, many efforts have been made to mask or decrease the bitterness in food and oral pharmaceutical products. The detection of bitterness is critical to evaluate how successful the taste-masking technology is, and many novel taste-sensing systems have been developed on the basis of various interaction mechanisms. In this review, we summarize the recent progress of bitterness response mechanisms and the development of novel sensors in detecting bitterness ranging from commercial electronic devices based on modified electrodes to micro-type sensors functionalized with taste cells, polymeric membranes, and other materials in the last two decades. The challenges and potential solutions to improve the taste sensor quality are also discussed.
... Taste sensors are presently employed for assessing a range of foods and drinks such as coffee, 13),68)-71) green tea, 72)-74) ginseng tea, 75) black tea, 76) beer, 77)-79) sake, 80) wine, 81) water, 82) juice, 83) milk, 84)-86) soup, 45) soy sauce, 87) amino acids, 88) and dipeptides. 46) In addition to food and beverages, bitterness sensors are utilized for assessing the bitterness of medicines in research study and product development. ...
Gustatory and olfactory receptors receive multiple chemical substances of different types simultaneously, but they can barely discriminate one chemical species from others. In this article, we describe a device used to measure taste, i.e., taste sensors. Toko and colleagues developed a taste sensor equipped with multiarray electrodes using a lipid/polymer membrane as the transducer in 1989. This sensor has a concept of global selectivity to decompose the characteristics of a chemical substance into taste qualities and to quantify them. The use of taste sensors has spread around the world. More than 600 examples of taste-sensing system have been used, while providing the first "taste scale" in the world. This article explains the principle of taste sensors and their application to foods and medicines, and also a novel type of taste sensor using allostery. Taste-sensor technology, the underlying principle of which is different from that of conventional analytical instruments, markedly affects many aspects including social economy as well as the food industry.
... The technology to quantify the taste felt by humans has been developed worldwide. Up to now, one of the methods to evaluate taste is to use taste sensors or electronic tongues; many reports on measurements of plural kinds of foods and medicines have been made [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] and many review papers have been published [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Electronic noses are used to measure gas, and electronic tongues are used to measure liquid [18,20]. ...
The use of taste sensors with lipid/polymer membranes is one of the methods to evaluate taste. As previously reported, taste sensors can detect non-charged substances such as caffeine by modifying the lipid/polymer membranes with hydroxybenzoic acids (HBAs). The mechanism of caffeine detection by taste sensors was identified to be an allosteric one. Generally, the allosteric mechanism, defined as “regulation at distant sites”, is used to describe the regulation process for proteins. In this study, to improve the sensitivity of taste sensors to caffeine and its analogs using the allosteric mechanism, we used various modifiers of lipid/polymer membranes, and we detected caffeine using taste sensors with the modified membranes. The detection of the caffeine analogs theophylline and theobromine was also analyzed. The results of caffeine detection clarified that the molecular structure underlying the allosteric mechanism capable of effective caffeine detection involves both the carboxyl and hydroxyl groups, where the hydroxyl group can form intermolecular H bonds with caffeine. Furthermore, the taste sensors with a modifier, which has the molecular structure underlying the allosteric mechanism, showed high sensitivity to caffeine and caffeine analogs. The use of an allosteric mechanism may help improve the sensitivity of taste sensors to other non-charged pharmaceutical substances, such as dexamethasone and prednisolone, in the future.
... Likewise, the artificial sense is about a group of similar taste responses created due to chemical substances lies in the same group. For example, sweet taste identifies by the presence of sugar, which can be glucose, sucrose, fructose or a combination of those, and umami comes from amino acid glutamate [16][17][18][19][20][21]28] etc. Kiyoshi Toko, Professor at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, has made e-tongue from polymer membrane consisting of specific lipids and reacts to specific elements that create food tastes. The different lipid membranes had mounted on the plastic hose and connected to electrodes; plastic hose drowned into liquid under test, which generated the countable potential difference and was observed due to reaction between liquid molecules and membrane. ...
India is the second-largest tea producer and consumer in the world after China. In 2017, the Indian tea market size accounted for 130 billion Indian rupees. An estimated global tea market size was at USD 13.31 billion in 2019, and the expected compound annual growth rate is 5.5India can grab worth tea market size globally by making market strategies with AI and ML-based demonstrations for the unique identity of tea flavor. Conventional instruments available are not handy, time-consuming and require a skilled person to operate. The tea attributes should be digitally recognizable before purchase from the consumer’s perspective, significantly enlarging the tea market circle. In the paper, the comprehensive review about an artificial perception of tea has been briefly discussed. Three major attributes of the tea sample, its taste, smell, and color, are under consideration. With the help of various sensors, the attributes of liquefied tea samples had got converted into their digital signature. By analyzing the correlation of them with the pattern recognition, their classification had done. The electronic feature fusion of tea liquor attributes may cause handling issues with the formation of redundant data. So this paper explains the method and guidelines of an application of specific filters which remove the redundant data. The constructive sample data can establish the decision matrix for correlation. With the established decision matrix, précised test prediction can be achieved for the tea sample based on correlation and regression. The limitations and glitches of the conventional instruments for an artificial perception have been discussed in-depth for possible improvement. The paper ends with a bibliometric analysis of the topic “artificial taste perception of tea”, which had derived from the standard repository of Web of Science. The bibliometric analysis is very useful to showcase the current research trends in the artificial taste perception of tea.
... The results might yield insight into a new strategy for identifying the age of individual ginseng plants. Several studies have reported other methods to discriminate the different ages of ginseng, such as telomere length [23], allometry [24] Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) [25], and taste-sensing [26]. ...
Panax ginseng is a traditional medicine. Fresh ginseng is one of the most important industries related to ginseng development, and fresh ginseng of varying ages has different medicinal properties. Previous research has not systematically reported the correlation between changes in key enzyme activity with changes in ginsenoside content in fresh ginseng over time. In this study, for the first time, we use ginseng samples of varying ages in Ji’an and systematically reported the changes in the activity of seven key enzymes (HMGR, FPS, SS, SE, DS, CYP450, and GT). We investigated the content of ginsenoside and gene expression of these key enzymes. Ginsenoside content was measured using HPLC. HPLC, GC-MS, and LC-MS were combined to measure the enzyme activity of the key enzymes. Quantitative PCR was used in the investigation of gene expression. By analyzing the correlation between the enzyme activity and the transcription level of the key enzymes with ginsenoside content, we found that DS and GT enzyme activities are significantly correlated with the ginsenoside content in different ages of ginseng. Our findings might provide a new strategy to discriminate between ginseng of different years. Meanwhile, this research provides important information for the in-depth study of ginsenoside biosynthesis.
... Moreover, it is economically critical to evaluate and control the quality of ginseng roots in the food industry and herbal markets. One of the most important issues is to evaluate the growth age of ginseng roots, and several analytical methods have been developed for this purpose [7][8][9][10]. In particular, qualitative and quantitative ginsenoside contents have been studied widely in ginseng roots at different ages [11,12]. ...
(1) Background: Panax ginseng root is one of the most important herbal products, and the profiling of ginsenosides is critical for the quality control of ginseng roots at different ages in the herbal markets. Furthermore, interest in assessing the contents as well as the localization of biological compounds has been growing. The objective of this study is to carry out the mass spectrometry (MS)-based profiling and imaging of ginsenosides to assess ginseng roots at different ages; (2) Methods: Optimal ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time of flight/MS (UPLC-QTOF/MS) was used to profile various ginsenosides from P. ginseng roots. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI)-time of flight (TOF)/MS-based imaging was also optimized to visualize ginsenosides in ginseng roots; (3) Results: UPLC-QTOF/MS was used to profile 30 ginsenosides with high mass accuracy, with an in-house library constructed for the fast and exact identification of ginsenosides. Using this method, the levels of 14 ginsenosides were assessed in P. ginseng roots cultivated for 4, 5, and 6 years. The optimal MALDI-imaging MS (IMS) was also applied to visualize the 14 ginsenosides in ginseng roots. As a result, the MSI cross sections showed the localization of 4 ginsenoside ions ([M + K]+) in P. ginseng roots at different ages; (4) Conclusions: The contents and localization of various ginsenosides differ depending on the cultivation years of P. ginseng roots. Furthermore, this study demonstrated the utility of MS-based profiling and imaging of ginsenosides for the quality control of ginseng roots.
... Moreover, methods of determining the expiration date of foods using the taste sensing system have been developed [29]. In practice, the tastes of various foods and beverages, including black tea [52], green tea [53], milk [54], Prosciutto ham [29], rice [55], pork [56], table salt [57], and ginseng [58], have been quantified using the taste sensing system. Fig. 9 shows a taste map where the intensities of taste for beer in various countries are mapped. ...
This chapter reviews the state-of-the-art technology of electronic tongues, mainly by focusing on a taste sensor, that is, an electronic tongue with global selectivity. It first explains the physiological knowledge of taste. The features of electronic tongues based on sensor arrays to measure liquid are low selectivity and high cross-selectivity instead of high selectivity and the capability of statistically analyzing the outputs from multiple sensors. There are two types of commercialized electronic tongue in the world. One is the taste sensing systems SA402B and TS-5000Z, which is usually called the taste sensor, and another is the Astree II e-tongue. In the future, an integrated biosensor system for the five senses will be developed to enable us to quantify the quality (palatability and safety), construct a quality information database, develop a quality description tool of foods, and visualize the five senses.
... Electronic tongues and a taste sensor, which is a kind of electronic tongue, have been used in the research and development of new products and their quality management in the food and pharmaceutical industries [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][15][16][17][18][19]. The taste sensor utilizes lipid/polymer membranes as the taste-sensing part and outputs a change in the membrane potential caused by the interaction between the lipid/polymer membrane and taste substances. ...
The bitterness of bitter substances can be measured by the change in the membrane electric potential caused by adsorption (CPA) using a taste sensor (electronic tongue). In this study, we examined the relationship between the CPA value due to an acidic bitter substance and the amount of the bitter substance adsorbed onto lipid/polymer membranes, which contain different lipid contents, used in the taste sensor. We used iso-α-acid which is an acidic bitter substance found in several foods and beverages. The amount of adsorbed iso-α-acid, which was determined by spectroscopy, showed a maximum at the lipid concentration 0.1 wt % of the membrane, and the same phenomenon was observed for the CPA value. At the higher lipid concentration, however, the amount adsorbed decreased and then remained constant, while the CPA value decreased monotonically to zero. This constant adsorption amount was observed when the membrane potential in the reference solution did not change with increasing lipid concentration. The decrease in CPA value in spite of the constant adsorption amount is caused by a decrease in the sensitivity of the membrane as the surface charge density increases. The reason why the peaks appeared in both the CPA value and adsorption amount is based on the contradictory adsorption properties of iso-α-acid. The increasing charged lipid concentration of the membrane causes an increasing electrostatic attractive interaction between iso-α-acid and the membrane, but simultaneously causes a decreasing hydrophobic interaction that results in decreasing adsorption of iso-α-acid, which also has hydrophobic properties, onto the membrane. Estimates of the amount of adsorption suggest that iso-α-acid molecules are adsorbed onto both the surface and interior of the membrane.
... 21,25 The measurement procedure of the taste sensing system was similar to the process reported in a previous study. 26 Briefly, five steps were included in one measurement circle. In the first step, all employed sensors need to be active in the standard solution. ...
:Background
Adulteration of American ginseng with Asian ginseng was common and has caused much damage to customers. Panel evaluation is commonly used to determine their difference but subjective. Chemical instruments are used to identify critical compounds but time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, a fast, accurate and convenient method was required. A taste-sensing system, which combined both advantages of above two technologies, might be a novel potential technology for determining ginseng adulteration. The aim is to build appropriate models to distinguish and predict ginseng adulteration by using taste characteristics.ResultsIt was found that ginsenoside contents decreased linearly (R2=0.92) with mixed ratios. Bioplot of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed a good performance in classing samples with first two PCs of 89.7%, and it was noticed that bitterness, astringent, and their aftertastes and saltiness were significant drivers. After factor screening, bitterness, astringent and aftertaste of bitterness and saltiness were employed to build latent models. Tastes of bitterness, astringent and aftertaste-bitterness taste were demonstrated to explain adulteration ratios prediction most; bitterness and aftertaste-bitterness contributing to ginsenoside contents prediction most.Conclusion
Taste characteristics of adulterated ginsengs, considering as taste finger-print, can provide novel guidance for determining the adulteration of American and Asian ginseng.
... Moreover, methods of determining the expiration date of foods using the taste sensing system have been developed [29]. In practice, the tastes of various foods and beverages, including black tea [52], green tea [53], milk [54], Prosciutto ham [29], rice [55], pork [56], table salt [57], and ginseng [58], have been quantified using the taste sensing system. Fig. 9 shows a taste map where the intensities of taste for beer in various countries are mapped. ...
Sensing technologies for objective evaluation such as the discrimination and quantification of tastes have been developed since around 1990, before the discovery of taste receptors. Electronic tongues aim to discriminate and analyze foods and beverages and are well known as sensing technologies that greatly contribute to quality management. A taste sensor, i.e., an electronic tongue with global selectivity, is developed to realize a sensor that responds to taste chemical substances and can be used to quantify the type of taste focusing on the fact that humans discriminate the taste of foods and beverages on the tongue with the five basic tastes. In this paper, we focus on the taste sensor and describe its sensing principle, its difference from general electronic tongues that do not aim to quantify tastes, examples of its use, and the recent trend of research of electronic tongues.
Electronic tongue systems have been broadly employed in monitoring of food, beverage, and environment, forensics, cosmetics, pharmaceutical analysis, and medical diagnosis. This is because e-tongues can nearly discriminate samples of high complexity, reduce interference of the matrix, offer rapid response, non-destructive, miniaturization and on-site capabilities, compared to other analytical approaches that require expensive instrumentation, complex sample preparation and highly-skilled personnel. Even though electronic tongues are successfully commercialized, their application in cancer diagnosis from urine samples is underestimated. In this review, we would like to highlight the various analytical techniques such as Raman spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and electrochemical techniques (potentiometry and voltammetry) used as e-tongues for urine analysis towards non-invasive cancer diagnosis. Besides, different machine learning approaches, for instance, supervised and unsupervised learning and algorithms are introduced to analyze extracted chemical data and to highlight the diagnostic capabilities of e-tongues in distinguishing between patients diagnosed with cancer and healthy controls.
Tea is the most popular hot beverageworldwide. In 2020, the value of the global tea market was almost USD 200 billion, and is estimated to reach up to USD 318 billion by the year 2025. Tea has been included as part ofa regular diet for centuries because of its various health benefits. However, tea is acidic, and over-consumption causes heat problems, disturbance of the sleep cycle, tooth erosion, and low calcium absorption in the body. Strong tea concentration is very harmful and toxic. The safe consumption of tea should be guaranteed. The treatment applied in this research work is on sensory mechanisms and Arduino UNO. The objective of this paper is to find out community interest in a particular tea species and inform them about tea overdose.The acidity is mapped with tea taste in terms of strong, medium, and low flavors. Based on the data analysis, the results differentiatethe acidity level of black tea (pH: 3.89–4.08) as very high, green tea (pH: 4.68–4.70) is in the 2nd position, and the energy drink Herbalife Nutrition (pH: 5.59–5.64) is the least acidic comparatively, with a proportion ratio 1:10 of tea to water. Experimental analysis reveals that in the additives, lemon is most acidic, followed byginger, lemongrass, and Tulasi.
Electronic tongue is the classical tool for taste evaluation in different applications such as food evaluation [1], water [2], and process monitoring [3]; biomimetic membrane-based taste biosensor is another important approach for taste evaluation.
Background
American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) and Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer) products, such as slices, have a similar appearance, but they have significantly different prices, leading to widespread adulteration in the commercial market. Their aroma characteristics are attracting increasing attention and are supposed to be effective and nondestructive markers to determine adulteration.
Methods
The aroma characteristics of American and Asian ginseng were investigated using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry(GC-MS) and an electronic nose (E-nose). Their volatile organic compounds were separated, classified, compared, and analyzed with different pattern recognition.
Results
The E-nose showed a good performance in grouping with a principle component analysis explaining 94.45% of variance. A total of 69 aroma components were identified by GC-MS, with 35.6% common components and 64.6% special ingredients between the two ginsengs. It was observed that the components and the number of terpenes and alcohols were markedly different, indicating possible reasons for their difference. The results of pattern recognition confirmed that the E-nose processing result is similar to that of GC-MS. The interrelation between aroma constituents and sensors indicated that special sensors were highly related to some terpenes and alcohols. Accordingly, the contents of selected constituents were accurately predicted by corresponding sensors with most R² reaching 90%.
Conclusion
Combined with advanced chemometrics, the E-nose is capable of discriminating between American and Asian ginseng in both qualitative and quantitative angles, presenting an accurate, rapid, and nondestructive reference approach.
Theaflavins (TF), thearubigins (TR) and theabrownins (TB) are the major polyphenols that determine the quality of black tea. These compounds were measured in black teas and their correlation with taste values and taste quality was investigated. TF, TR and TB in the black teas from Chinese markets averaged 0.24%, 4.07% and 7.59%, respectively. Correlation analysis showed that TF was positively and significantly correlated with astringency (r = 0.521, p < 0.05), aftertaste of astringency (r = 0.619, p < 0.01) and richness (r = 0.618, p < 0.01). TR was also positively correlated aftertaste of astringency (r = 0.530, p < 0.05), while TB was negatively correlated with bitterness (r = -0.486, p < 0.05). Taste score had a positive correlation with TF (r = 0.691, p < 0.01) and TR (r = 0.604, p < 0.05). Meanwhile, taste score correlated positively with astringency (r = 0.483, p < 0.05) and aftertaste of astringency (r = 0.518, p < 0.05). The result showed that black teas can be partially classified by cluster analysis using PCA components.
It is difficult to describe the taste of Processed Aconite Root (PAR) because it contains toxic compounds, and tasting poses some risk to the examiner. Therefore, there is no description of the taste of PAR in the latest Japanese Pharmacopoeia, although the taste of crude drugs has been regulated as a criterion for judgment. In this study, we revealed the objective taste of PAR by using a taste-sensing system. The PAR samples examined were classified into four types by how the samples were processed: PAR1 processed by autoclaving; PAR2-a processed by autoclaving after rinsing in salt (sodium chloride) solution; PAR2-h processed by heating after rinsing in calcium chloride solution; PAR3 processed by treating with hydrated lime after rinsing in salt solution. The most characteristic taste factor of PAR is an aftertaste of cationic bitterness, which was detected in all PAR sample solutions, even at the concentration of 0.1 mg/ml. In addition, anionic bitterness and saltiness were detected in all sample solutions at 1 mg/ml. Furthermore, umami was detected in the PAR1, PAR2-a, and PAR3 sample solutions at 1 mg/ml. Detailing the analyses of the four taste factors on the four sample types, we found each type has its own characteristic taste pattern. On the basis of these results, we proposed a method for discriminating one PAR type from another by using the system.
Effective R&D and strict quality control of a broad range of foods, beverages, and pharmaceutical products require objective taste evaluation. Advanced taste sensors using artificial-lipid membranes have been developed based on concepts of global selectivity and high correlation with human sensory score. These sensors respond similarly to similar basic tastes, which they quantify with high correlations to sensory score. Using these unique properties, these sensors can quantify the basic tastes of saltiness, sourness, bitterness, umami, astringency and richness without multivariate analysis or artificial neural networks. This review describes all aspects of these taste sensors based on artificial lipid, ranging from the response principle and optimal design methods to applications in the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical markets.
The tastes of different kinds of coffee were measured using a taste sensor. It was found that the lipid membranes of the sensor can be used safely at temperatures as high as 60°C for half a year. Coffees processed by a roasting-brewing procedure were easily discriminated; very high correlations were found between the response electric potentials of the taste sensor and the results of sensory tests by humans for acidity and bitterness, which are the characteristic tastes of coffee. The results imply that the taste of coffee can be quantified by this objective measure. The taste of commercial liquid canned coffees was also quantified, and a two-dimensional taste map was obtained. These results are due to the global selectivity of the taste sensor, which responds simultaneously to tastes of various substances in foodstuffs and classifies them into characteristic groups of taste qualities.
A taste sensor with global selectivity, i.e., electronic tongue, is composed of several kinds of lipid/polymer membranes for transforming information of taste substances into electric signal. The sensor output shows different patterns for chemical substances which have different taste qualities such as saltiness and sourness. Taste interactions such as suppression effect, which occurs between bitterness and sweetness, can be detected and quantified using the taste sensor. Amino acids and peptides can be classified into several groups according to their own tastes from sensor outputs. Bitter-tasting amino acids such as l-tryptophan have response electric patterns similar to a typical bitter substance, quinine. The taste of foodstuffs such as beer, sake, coffee, mineral water, milk and vegetables can be discussed quantitatively. The taste sensor with lipid membranes provides the objective scale for the human sensory expression and will contribute to clarification of the reception mechanism at gustatory cells.
This study reports the effects of cultivation location, cultivation year, and storage period on 13 ginsenosides and 30 phenolics in Korean fresh ginseng (FG) and its three processed ginsengs (white ginseng, WG; taeguek ginseng, TG; red ginseng, RG). Total ginsenosides content in FG was affected by cultivation year (P = 0.038) and storage period (P = 0.0021), not by cultivation location. In contrast, phenolics content in FG was affected by cultivation locations (P < 0.0001) and cultivation year (P = 0.0083), but not by storage period. Processed ginsengs, especially RG, contained larger amounts of ginsenosides and phenolics than those in FG. Thus, RG could be considered as the best ginseng type for human health benefits. The present study extended our knowledge about the change of ginsenosides and phenolics in ginsengs with respect to cultivation location, cultivation year, and the storage period.
In this paper, the electronic nose (E-nose) is employed for the rapid identification of quality grades of green tea. Back-propagation neural network (BPNN) and probabilistic neural network (PNN) are two artificial neural networks (ANN) that are used widely. Then BPNN, PNN and cluster analysis (CA) are applied to identify the different tea samples. The first three principal components obtained by principal component analysis (PCA) are extracted as the inputs to the BPNN and PNN. Results of CA show that the classification of the different tea samples is possible using the response signals of the E-nose. Better experimental results are obtained using BP neural network. For the two neural networks BPNN and PNN, the classification success rates are 100% and 98.7% for the training set, respectively and these are, respectively, 88% and 85.3% for the testing sets. The overall results show that the two neural networks can be employed for identification of the different five tea samples.
In this paper, responses of a gas sensor array were employed to establish a quality indices model evaluating the peach quality indices. The relationship between sensor signals and the firmness, the content of sugar (CS) and acidity of “Dabai” peach were developed using multiple linear regressions with stepwise procedure, quadratic polynomial step regression (QPST) and back-propagation network. The results showed that the multiple linear regression model represented good ability in predicting of quality indices, with high correlation coefficients (R2=0.87 for penetrating force CF; R2=0.79 for content of sugar CS; R2=0.81 for pH) and relatively low average percent errors (ERR) (9.66%, 7.68% and 3.6% for CF, CS and pH, respectively). The quadratic polynomial step regression provides an accurate quality indices model, with high correlation (R2=0.92, 0.87, 0.83 for CF, CS and pH, respectively) between predicted and measured values and a relatively low error (5.47%, 3.45%, 2.57% for CF, CS and pH, respectively) for prediction. The feed-forward neural network also provides an accurate quality indices model with a high correlation (R2=0.90, 0.81, 0.87 for CF, CS and pH, respectively) between predicted and measured values and a relatively low average percent error (6.39%, 6.21%, 3.13% for CF, CS and pH, respectively) for prediction. These results prove that the electronic nose has the potential of becoming a reliable instrument to assess the peach quality indices.
Detection of tea grade by a human taste panel is affected by external factors and usually inaccurate, but it might be promising to use an electronic nose (E-nose). In this paper an investigation has been made to determine the grade of different tea samples using an E-nose. Feature vectors of the teas with different quality grade (Labeled: T120, T600, T800, T1200 and T1800) were extracted from the E-nose response signals, and the data were processed by using the principle components analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Using the average and integrated value of feature vectors, 100% correct classification by LDA was achieved for five different tea samples with different qualities. The results indicated that the E-nose was capable of discriminating different grades of green teas.
A multichannel taste sensor, namely an electronic tongue, with global
selectivity is composed of several kinds of lipid/polymer membranes for
transforming information about substances producing taste into
electrical signals, which are input to a computer. The sensor output
exhibits different patterns for chemical substances which have different
taste qualities such as saltiness, sourness and bitterness, whereas it
exhibits similar patterns for chemical substances with similar tastes.
The sensor responds to the taste itself, as can be understood from the
fact that taste interactions such as the suppression effect, which
appears for mixtures of sweet and bitter substances, can be reproduced
well. The suppression of the bitterness of quinine and a drug substance
by sucrose can be quantified. Amino acids can be classified into several
groups according to their own tastes on the basis of sensor outputs. The
tastes of foodstuffs such as beer, coffee, mineral water, milk, sake,
rice, soybean paste and vegetables can be discussed quantitatively using
the taste sensor, which provides the objective scale for the human
sensory expression. The flavour of a wine is also discriminated using
the taste-odour sensory fusion conducted by combining the taste sensor
and an odour-sensor array using conducting polymer elements. The taste
sensor can also be applied to measurements of water pollution.
Miniaturization of the taste sensor using FET produces the same
characteristics as those of the above taste sensor by measuring the
gate-source voltage. Use of the taste sensor will lead to a new era of
food and environmental sciences.
The contents of 12 ginsenosides (Rg1, Re, F11, Rf, Rg2, Rh1, Rb1, Rc, Rb2, Rb3, Rd, Rh2) in different parts and ages of Panax quinquefolius L. (American ginseng) were quantified by high pressure microwave-assisted extraction (HPMAE) high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with evaporative light scattering detection (HPLC-ELSD). The analytical method was established and analytical performances were evaluated. The chemical marker of American ginseng F11 was detected, and Rf which is the chemical marker of Asian ginseng was not found. Rare ginsenoside Rh1, Rg2 and Rh2 were also studied in this experiment. The total contents of these 12 ginsenosides in the different parts of 5-year-old American ginseng follow this order: leaf > root-hair > rhizome > root > stem. Therefore, compared with the other parts of American ginseng, the leaf is a better available source of ginsenosides. The contents of ginsenosides in root and leaf also change with age.
Five species ofPanax native of China are used in medicine. Ginseng, the best known, is prepared from the root ofP. ginseng C. A. Meyer. It is a tonic prescribed primarily for the restoration of strength in weak people.San-ch’i, a product prepared from the root ofP. pseudoginseng Wall., is a pain reliever and a hemostatic. It is prescribed for cancer, boils, swellings, bleeding, bruises, internal hemorrhages
and irregular menses. Commercial products of these species are prepared from cultivated plants. Other species of Panax — P.
bipinnatifidum Seem., P. japonicum C. A. Meyer, and P. major (Burk.) Ting — are used in folk medicine by people living in
the mountains. This article deals with botanical descriptions and geographical and ecological notes of the species, the preparation,
identification and marketing of the products, and the pharmacological aspects of the drugs. It also contains a list of 22
species of sêng-producing plants in 12 genera and seven families of Dicotyledoneae other than Araliaceae.
The changes in aroma characteristics during the preparation of red ginseng were investigated by using an electronic nose equipped with metal oxide (MO) sensor arrays, sensory evaluation and gas chromatography. All the MO sensor responses for fresh ginseng were much higher than those of steamed ginseng and most MO sensor responses for red ginseng were also higher than those for steamed ginseng when analysed using the electronic nose. It was evaluated by sensory panels that fresh ginseng had strong fresh, earthy, herbaceous and floral flavour notes while steamed ginseng had only moderate earthy flavour note and red ginseng had strong fragrant, sweet and roast flavour notes. A characteristic fragrant and sweet aroma compound was isolated from red ginseng and it was identified 3-hydroxy-2-methyl-pyran-4-one. The amount level of the aroma component in Korean red ginseng headspace was significantly correlated with either the SY/LG sensor response or the SY/AA sensor response of electronic nose at 1% level. These results suggest that the electronic nose equipped with MO sensor arrays may be also available for the rapid monitoring the changes in aroma characteristics during the preparation of red ginseng.
Electronic tongues are sensor array systems which are able to determine single substances as well as complex mixtures of various substances. They are increasingly used for taste assessment of pharmaceutical formulations. Two systems are available on the market, the AlphaMOS electronic tongue Astree2 and the Insent taste sensing system TS-5000Z. Both systems measure based on potentiometry but sensor technologies are different. Therefore, these electronic tongue systems were compared to each other with respect to general aspects like software handling, sensors, and measurement procedure, but also on the basis of analytical experiments in order to figure out the applicability and limitations for use in the pharmaceutical field. By investigation of substances with different ionic character, like sodium saccharin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, quinine, and caffeine, it was shown for both systems that ionic substances are easier to detect than neutral ones. Further, the performance qualification could only be done for the TS-5000Z, whereas the validation step, a correlation to human taste assessment, was passed by both systems. The results were even more reproducible than those from the panel. Taste masking by complexation of ibuprofen and quinine hydrochloride by maltodextrin, could be evaluated by both systems. Data from the Astree2 system have to be normalized in order to compare inter-day results, while the Insent taste sensing system refers each measurement to a standard solution and therefore reaches better inter-day results. Both systems offer the opportunity to be used for the development of taste-masked pharmaceutical formulations.
Electronic tongues are sensor array systems able to detect single substances as well as complex mixtures by means of particular sensor membranes and electrochemical techniques. Two systems are already commercially available, the Insent taste sensing system and the αAstree electronic tongue. In addition, various laboratory prototype versions exist. Besides the successful use in food industry, the implementation for pharmaceutical purposes has strongly grown within the recent years. A reason for this is the increased interest of developing palatable formulations, especially for children. As taste assessment of drugs comes along with challenges due to possible toxicity and subjectivity of the taste assessors, electronic tongues could offer a safe and objective alternative. In order to provide guidance on the use of these systems, possible fields of interest are presented in this review, as for example, system qualification, quality control, formulation development, comparison between marketed drug products, and the validation of the methods used. Further, different approaches for solid and liquid dosage forms are summarized. But, also the difficulty to obtain absolute statements regarding taste was identified and the need of more validated data was discussed to offer guidance for the next years of research and application of electronic tongues for pharmaceutical applications.
Comprehensive 2-D GC (GC x GC) coupled with TOF MS or flame ionization detector (FID) was employed to characterize and quantify the chemical composition of volatile oil in the radixes of Panax ginseng C. A. Mey. (ginseng) at different ages. Thirty-six terpenoids were tentatively identified based on the MS library search and retention index in a ginseng sample at the age of 3 years. An obvious group-type separation was obtained in the GC x GC-TOF MS chromatogram. The data collected by GC x GC-FID were processed using a principal component analysis (PCA) method to classify the samples at different ages. The compounds responsible for the significant differentiation among samples were defined. It was found that the relative abundances of alpha-cadinol, alpha-bisabolol, thujopsene, and n-hexadecanoic acid significantly rise with the increase in age.
Ginsenosides, the active compounds inherent to most Ginseng species [e. g., Panax ginseng (Araliaceae)], have recently been the focus of increased attention, due to both their purported CNS, antineoplastic and immunomodulatory effects, and their ability to stimulate phagocytosis. In this study, we attempted to determine the effects of ginsenosides Rb1 and Rg1 in a rat model, with specific emphasis on nitric oxide and cytokines, which have been implicated in chronic brain inflammation. We discovered that Rb1 and Rg1 exert opposite effects in a dose-dependent manner (50-250 microg/mL). Whereas Rg1 stimulated nitric oxide and proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1beta, IL-6, and TNF-alpha), Rb1 exerted a significant inhibitory effect on this proinflammatory repertoire. In addition, the genetic expression of bcl-2 and bax, both of which have been implicated in apoptosis, was regulated by treatment with Rb1 and Rg1, at a concentration of 250 microg/mL. Moreover, when combined treatment with equal doses of Rb1 and Rg1 was given, Rb1 significantly counteracted the stimulatory effects of Rg1, as evidenced by an NO assay. This effect persisted stably for 72 h. In conclusion, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, which is caused primarily by cell death due to chronic inflammation and cell stress, might be controlled by proper doses of non-toxic, natural Rg1 and Rb1.
A practical method for universal evaluation of the astringency of green tea infusion by a taste sensor system was established. The use of EGCg aqueous solution as a standard enabled analysis with high accuracy and reproducibility. The sensor output was converted into taste-intensity on the basis of Weber's and Weber-Fechner laws, which was named the "EIT(ast)" value ("EIT" and "ast" are abbreviations for "Estimated Intensity of Taste" and "astringency" respectively). It was clarified that green tea infusion is to be classified into eight grades on the EIT(ast) scale. Furthermore, the high correlation of the EIT(ast) value with the human gustatory sense and the high stability of the taste sensor were proved.
In this study, the authors have characterized the effect of HER-S (red ginseng, Angelicae gigantis Radix, Phyllostachys folium, and soybean extracts) on osteoporosis-associated phenomena in ovariectomized (OVX) rats by measuring body weights and bone histomorphometries in control, sham, OVX, OVX(beta-estradiol-treated), and OVX(HER-S-treated) rats. Light microscopic analyses showed a porous or eroded appearance on the femoral trabecular bone surface in OVX rats, whereas the femoral trabecular bone surfaces of the other groups (control, sham, OVX(17beta-estradiol-treated), and OVX(HER-S-treated) rats) were composed of fine particles. The femoral trabecular bone area and number were decreased in OVX rats, but these reductions were significantly prevented by the administration of HER-S for 7 weeks, similar to estrogen. In the blood biochemistry results, serum phosphorus, calcium, T(3), and T(4) remained unchanged, but blood estrogen levels were significantly increased in HER-S-treated rats, which suggests that estrogen is related to the mechanism of the HER-S-induced antiosteoporosis function in OVX rats.
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