Characterization by near infrared spectroscopy of seeds and oils of Amaranthus spp. as a function of cropping systems

Abstract

Species of the Amaranthus genus are very versatile and have potential for the application in the development of commercial products. The near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) is an efficient tool that can help in the quality control of products, quickly and non-destructive to the sample. The goal of this study was to carry out the distinction of seed and oils of different Amaranthus species using the near infrared spectroscopy. Three species were used: A. viridis L., A. hybridus L. e Amaranthus sp. (commercial). The spectra acquired from the sample using the near infrared spectroscopy were submitted to the partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and to the principal component analysis (PCA). Through PCA, it was possible to differentiate the Amaranthus species both for seeds and oils. Through PLS-DA, it was possible to predict the classes of the species with high degree of correct classification, with 96.67% of correct classifications for seeds and 98.89% for oil. Thus, with the use of the near infrared spectroscopy associated with the multivariate statistical analysis, it is possible to classify the different Amaranthus species, especially when using the oil.