Electronic tongue as innovative instrument for detection of crocin concentration in saffron (Crocus sativus L.)

Electronic tongue is a new approach for simple and fast detection, classification, and quantification of the solved compounds. Crocin is the main source of color of saffron (Crocus sativus L.). An electronic tongue system was used to predict the concentration of saffron crocin in the present study. The measurement system included an electrochemical sensor array based on voltammetry electrodes, a three-electrode cell, a potentiostat, a personal computer. Aqueous analyte were provided by blending pure crocin and different saffron samples from Iran and Spain with distilled water. Output signals of the electronic tongue system were analyzed by principal component analysis and artificial neural networks. Based on principal component analysis, the total variance among pure crocin was 99% and that of saffron samples was 100%. The accuracy of artificial neural network model was 98.80%. The results indicated that the developed electronic tongue system and artificial neural network model can successfully predict crocin concentration in saffron.