The Electronic Nose Technique for Non-Destructive clustering of Basil as a Medicinal Plant

The electronic nose technique is a novel and non-destructive method used for grading odorant materials including essence (oils) of medicinal plants. This technique works based on chemical sensors and resembles the human olfactory system. On the other hand, the medical and aromatic plant industry (MAPs) is a new and growing industry that lacks quality control devices. In this study, an electronic nose device is introduced and then the possibility of identifying and grading 8 species of basil is investigated. An electronic nose system based on eight metallic oxide semiconductor (MOS) sensors were used. First, the main constituents of the essential oils of 8 species were extracted from the basil and were determined using standard laboratory methods, their type and percentage. Then, the grading of these classes was evaluated using a non-destructive electronic nose test. Results of PCA principal component analysis showed that using the first two principal components (PCA1, PCA2), 88% of the variance can be justified. Also, using the PCA LQ diagram of the MQ135 sensor had a greater effect on class separation. The results showed that e-nose as an inexpensive, accurate, easy tool to identify species of basil is effective.