Application of a LED-based reflectance sensor for the assessing in situ the lycopene content of tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

Anna G. Mignani; Leonardo Ciaccheri; Andrea A. Mencaglia; Lorenza Tuccio; Giovanni Agati

doi:10.1117/12.2177896

13 May 2015 Application of a LED-based reflectance sensor for the assessing in situ the lycopene content of tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

Anna G. Mignani, Leonardo Ciaccheri, Andrea A. Mencaglia, Lorenza Tuccio, Giovanni Agati

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII; 948806 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2177896
Event: SPIE Sensing Technology + Applications, 2015, Baltimore, MD, United States

Abstract

Nondestructive in situ determination of the antioxidant lycopene of fresh tomato fruits is of large interest for the growers, willing to optimize the harvest time for high quality products. For this, we developed a portable LED-based colorimeter which was able to measure reflectance spectra of whole tomatoes in the 400-750 nm range. The tomato skins from the same samples were then frozen in liquid nitrogen, extracted with an acetone/ethanol/hexane mixture and analyzed by means of a spectrophotometer for their lycopene content. Concentration of lycopene was varying between 70 and 550 mg/Kg fresh weight skin. Partial Least Square regression was used to correlate spectral data to the tomato lycopene content. The multivariate processing of the reflectance data showed that lycopene content could be nicely predicted with a coefficient of determination R²=0.945 and a root mean square error of cross-validation RMSECV=57 mg/Kg skin fresh weight. These results suggest that portable, low-cost and compact LED-based sensors appear to be promising instruments for the nondestructive assessment of tomato lycopene even in the field.

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Anna G. Mignani, Leonardo Ciaccheri, Andrea A. Mencaglia, Lorenza Tuccio, and Giovanni Agati "Application of a LED-based reflectance sensor for the assessing in situ the lycopene content of tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)", Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 948806 (13 May 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2177896

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