Biospectroscopy, biospectrometry and imaging of Ilex paraguariensis. Basis for non-destructive quality evaluation using artificial vision

TAMARA PARAPUGNA; GABRIELA PETROSELLI; ROSA ERRA-BALSELLS; MARÍA GABRIELA LAGORIO

Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY

Lugar: CAMBRIDGE; Año: 2016 vol. 15 p. 879 - 888

1474-905X

Yerba mate (YM) is massively produced and consumed as an infusion in South America and is gainingpopularity all over the world. This product is obtained from the dried leaves of Ilex paraguariensis SaintHilaire, mixed with fragments of its dried branches. For its commercialization YM must have a minimumpercentage of leaves according to a standard classification. Until now, composition quantification hasbeen mechanically performed, thus development of new methods is still pending. In this work a quantificationmethod using solid-phase molecular fluorescence, alternately diffuse reflectance spectroscopyand an imaging technique using a scanner have been proposed. Strong differences between the spectroscopicproperties of leaves and sticks were observed and in all the cases linear correlations between theprocessed signals and composition were observed. Interesting differences in chemical composition of YMleaves and sticks were additionally obtained in this work by means of total phenol content quantification,ultraviolet matrix assisted laser-desorption ionization mass spectrometry and ultraviolet laser-desorptionionization mass spectrometry.