Standard Analytical Methods, Sensory Evaluation, NIRS and Electronic Tongue for Sensing Taste Attributes of Different Melon Varieties

Abstract

Grafting by vegetables is a practice with many benefits, but also with some unknown influences on the chemical composition of the fruits. Our goal was to assess the effects of grafting and storage on the extracted juice of four orange-fleshed Cantaloupe type (Celestial, Donatello, Centro, Jannet) melons and two green-fleshed Galia types (Aikido, London), using sensory profile analysis and analytical instruments: An electronic tongue (E-tongue) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Both instruments are known for rapid qualitative and quantitative food analysis. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to classify melons according to their varieties and storage conditions. Partial least square regression (PLSR) was used to predict sensory and standard analytical parameters. Celestial variety had the highest intensity for sensory attributes in Cantaloupe variety. Both green and orange-fleshed melons were discriminated and predicted in LDA with high accuracies (100%) using the E-tongue and NIRS. Galia and Cantaloupe inter-varietal classification with the E-tongue was 89.9% and 82.33%, respectively. NIRS inter-varietal classification was 100% with Celestial variety being the most discriminated as with the sensory results. Both instruments, classified different storage conditions of melons (grafted and self-rooted) with high accuracies. PLSR showed high accuracy for some standard analytical parameters, where significant differences were found comparing different varieties in ANOVA.

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy as a Rapid Screening Method for the Determination of Total Anthocyanin Content in Sambucus Fructus

“…As well as distinguishing elderberry genotypes based on fruit quality [ 10 ]. NIR spectroscopy is a very powerful tool for analysis of fruits and vegetables and related food products [ 11 , 12 ]. Our study is the first that describes a NIR spectroscopy technique for the determination of TAC in elderberry.…”

Rootstock Effects on Yield and Some Consumer Important Fruit Quality Parameters of Eggplant cv. ‘Madonna’ under Protected Cultivation

“…Grieneisen et al [15] conducted a review of 202 different rootstocks and 1023 experimental treatments related to tomato grafting, and they concluded that fruit quality data based on sensory tests were rare among the published studies. Sensory evaluation of grafted plants of the members of the Cucurbitaceae family, i.e., melon [16], watermelon [17,18], and cucumber [19], and those of the Solanaceae family [20,21] have been conducted, but there is relatively few data for eggplant.…”

Historical Evolution and Food Control Achievements of Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Electronic Nose, and Electronic Tongue—Critical Overview

“…This substantiates the importance of NIR spectroscopy for rapid monitoring of additives and preservatives in fruit juices when either transmittance, reflectance, or diffuse-reflectance mode is used. In combination with standard analytical techniques, both a benchtop and handheld SMC NIR in reflectance mode could discriminate different varieties of green and orange fleshed melons with 100% classification accuracy in LDA and predict multiple sensory parameters in PLS regression with high precision (R 2 up to 0.96) and low errors (RMSECV as low as 0.24 g/mL) after cross-validation [ 80 ]. Transmittance mode benchtop FT-NIR provided high R 2 in cross-validation (up to 0.94) and low errors (RMSECV as low as 5.07 mg nitrogen/L) when it was used to measure total yeast assimilable nitrogen, free amino nitrogen, and ammonia in 900 grape juice samples from 28 cultivars over three seasons [ 81 ].…”

“…The same potentiometric E-tongue measurements combined with LDA showed 100% separation between the flesh of different colors. Good correlations were found between some standard analytical parameters and E-tongue sensor signals with PLS regression models [ 80 ].…”