Lipid Profile Quantification and Species Discrimination of Pine Seeds through NIR Spectroscopy: A Feasibility Study
Mariem Khouja,
Ricardo N. M. J. Páscoa,
Diana Melo,
Anabela S. G. Costa,
M. Antónia Nunes,
Abdelhamid Khaldi,
Chokri Messaoud,
M. Beatriz P. P. Oliveira,
Rita C. Alves
Affiliations
Mariem Khouja
Laboratory of Nanobiotechnology and Valorization of Medicinal Phytoresources, Department of Biology, National Institute of Applied Science and Technology, University of Carthage, B.P. 676, Tunis Cedex 1080, Tunisia
Ricardo N. M. J. Páscoa
REQUIMTE/LAQV, Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
Diana Melo
REQUIMTE/LAQV, Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
Anabela S. G. Costa
REQUIMTE/LAQV, Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
M. Antónia Nunes
REQUIMTE/LAQV, Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
Abdelhamid Khaldi
National Research Institute of Rural Engineering, Water and Forests, University of Carthage, B.P. 10, Ariana, Tunis 2080, Tunisia
Chokri Messaoud
Laboratory of Nanobiotechnology and Valorization of Medicinal Phytoresources, Department of Biology, National Institute of Applied Science and Technology, University of Carthage, B.P. 676, Tunis Cedex 1080, Tunisia
M. Beatriz P. P. Oliveira
REQUIMTE/LAQV, Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
Rita C. Alves
REQUIMTE/LAQV, Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
Pine seeds are known for their richness in lipid compounds and other healthy substances. However, the reference procedures that are commonly applied for their analysis are quite laborious, time-consuming, and expensive. Therefore, it is important to develop rapid, accurate, multi-parametric, cost-effective and, essentially, environmentally friendly analytical techniques that are easily implemented at an industrial scale. The viability of using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to analyse the seed lipid content and profile of three different pine species (Pinus halepensis, Pinus brutia and Pinus pinaster) was investigated. Moreover, species discrimination using NIR was also attempted. Different chemometric models, namely partial least squares (PLS) regression, for lipid analysis, and partial least square—discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), for pine species discrimination, were applied. In relation to the discrimination of pine seed species, a total of 90.5% of correct classification rates were obtained. Regarding the quantification models, most of the compounds assessed yielded determination coefficients (R2P) higher than 0.80. The best PLS models were obtained for total fat, vitamin E, saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, C20:2, C20:1n9, C20, C18:2n6c, C18:1n9c, C18 and C16:1. Globally, the obtained results demonstrated that NIR spectroscopy is a suitable analytical technique for lipid analysis and species discrimination of pine seeds.
