Determination of the Mineral Composition and Toxic Element Contents of Propolis by Near Infrared Spectroscopy.

The potential of near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) with remote reflectance fiber-optic probes for determining the mineral composition of propolis was evaluated. This technology allows direct measurements without prior sample treatment. Ninety one samples of propolis were collected in Chile (Bio-Bio region) and Spain (Castilla-León and Galicia regions). The minerals measured were aluminum, calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and some potentially toxic trace elements such as zinc, chromium, nickel, copper and lead. The modified partial least squares (MPLS) regression method was used to develop the NIR calibration model. The determination coefficient (R2) and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) obtained for aluminum (0.79, 53), calcium (0.83, 94), iron (0.69, 134) potassium (0.95, 117), magnesium (0.70, 99), phosphorus (0.94, 24) zinc (0.87, 10) chromium (0.48, 0.6) nickel (0.52, 0.7) copper (0.64, 0.9) and lead (0.70, 2) in ppm. The results demonstrated that the capacity for prediction can be considered good for wide ranges of potassium, phosphorus and zinc concentrations, and acceptable for aluminum, calcium, magnesium, iron and lead. This indicated that the NIR method is comparable to chemical methods. The method is of interest in the rapid prediction of potentially toxic elements in propolis before consumption.

Differentiation of organic and non-organic ewe's cheeses using main mineral composition or near infrared spectroscopy coupled to chemometric tools: a comparative study.

Two independent methodologies were investigated to achieve the differentiation of ewes' cheeses from different systems of production (organic and non-organic). Eighty cheeses (40 organic and 40 non-organic) from two systems of production, two different breeds of ewe, different sizes, seasons (summer and winter) and ripening times up to 9 months were elaborated. Their mineral composition or the information provided by their spectra in the near infrared zone (NIR) coupled to chemometric tools were used in order to differentiate between organic and non-organic cheeses. Main mineral composition (Ca, K, Mg, Na and P) of cheeses and stepwise lineal discriminant analysis were used to develop a discriminant model. The results from canonical standardised coefficients indicated that the most important mineral was Mg (1.725) followed by P (0.764) and K (0.742). The percentage of correctly classified samples was 88% in internal validation and 90% in external validation, selecting Mg, K and P as variables.Spectral information in the NIR zone was used coupled to a discriminant analysis based on a regression by partial least squares in order to obtain a model which allowed a rate of samples correctly classified of 97% in internal validation and 85% in external validation.