Saffron is the commercial name of the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus L. flower. Due to the high cost of saffron, adulteration sometimes occurs in the local market. In this study, the aroma fingerprints of saffron, saffron with yellow styles, safflower and dyed corn stigma were detected by an electronic nose system. The features of the obtained signals from electronic nose system were extracted and used for data analysis. In this work, Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was used and the results were confirmed by back propagation (BP) artificial neural networks (ANN). The results revealed that the system can recognize the saffron adulteration satisfactorily.As a conclusion, it was found that the electronic nose could provide good separation of the saffron and adulterated one (safflower and other adulteration) as 100 and 86.87% classification Downloaded by [Baskent Universitesi] at 12:30 21 December 2014A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 2 accuracy respectively by means of ANN. The electronic nose was able to differentiate nonadulterated and adulterated saffron at higher than 10% adulteration level, successfully.

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In Iran, more than 30% of agricultural products turn into waste at different stages from harvesting to consumption. Thus, main factors for performing of this present study are including of: (a) the importance of tomato as an agricultural product and (b) lack of information about reducing waste during tomato processing. In this study, some physical, nutritional, mechanical, and hydrodynamic properties of tomato were measured under standard conditions. Physical properties included the length, width, thickness, mean diameter (geometric and arithmetic), mass, volume, density, sphericity, surface area, and aspect ratio. Also, nutritional properties, moisture, dry matter, pH, total soluble solid (TSS), and titration acidity (TA) of tomato were evaluated. The mechanical properties of tomato (compression and shear) were measured using Instron instrument. The hydrodynamic properties were measured with water in transportation, separation, and sorting of tomatoes. The physical properties were including of length, width, thickness, mass, volume, and geometric and arithmetic mean diameters showed a direct relationship with the size of tomatoes. Also, volumetric mass (density) had an inverse relation with tomato size. Yield point and shear force were obtained 51.27 and 22.20 N, respectively. The nutritional properties such as pH value, TSS, and TA were equal to 4.22, 22.23 ο Brix, and 2%, respectively. The hydrodynamic properties of tomatoes such as the terminal velocity, the tomatoes' rise time in the water column, the buoyancy force, and the drag force were obtained to be equal to 0.05 m/s, 10.11 S, 0.52 N, and 0.17 N, respectively.

Today, preserving the quality and reducing the losses of agricultural products is an important topic and has attracted the attention of many scholars in the field. This study aims at investigating the engineering properties (physical, mechanical, and hydrodynamic properties) of cantaloupe in order to manage and reduce the losses that is produced postharvest. The results show that the mean values physical properties measured for the geometric mean diameter, arithmetic mean diameter, sphericity, surface area, volume, and true density of the cantaloupes were 130.13 mm, 130.26 mm, 0.94%, 53,367.59 mm 2 , 633.30 cm 3 , and 0.83 g/cm 3 , respectively. Maximum force required for bruising and shearing cantaloupes in the investigation of their mechanical properties were 248.20 and 108.30 N. The hydrodynamic properties of cantaloupes such as the terminal velocity, the cantaloupes' rise time in the water column, the buoyance force and the drag force were obtained to be equal to 0.12 m/s, 4.10 S, 6.21 N, and 0.11 N, respectively. The results obtained through this study can be used in designing harvest machines, optimization, processing, transport, separation of impurities, and grading equipment for the purpose of reducing cantaloupe waste. Practical applicationsOf the 67 million tons of agricultural production in Iran, 20 million tons of it are turned into waste in the postharvest stage. That is the equivalent of food of 20 million people. Fruits are among the most important horticultural products that play an important role in supplying human nutrition and human health. Failure to review the engineering properties of agricultural products (physical, mechanical, and hydrodynamic properties) are the most important factors in increasing the agricultural waste at the postharvest stage. The physical properties of agricultural products are essential for the design and optimization of harvesting and postharvesting machinery, separating, transferring, grading, and drying processes. Mechanical properties can be useful in designing machinery and equipment for transportation and displacement of the product. Hydrodynamic properties can be useful for transfer, separation and grading by water in order to reduce processing costs and reduce cantaloupe waste.