Localization of Cereal Grain Components by Vibrational Microscopy and Chemometric Analysis

Abstract

This chapter describes two microscopy techniques, Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy and confocal Raman microspectroscopy (CRM), explaining how they can be employed to investigate the structure of cereal grains. An extensive overview on chemometric data analysis illustrates the most widely used methods for spectral preprocessing, unmixing, and resolution of different components in the sample. A few examples are provided, including a case study in which CRM is applied to analyze chemical and structural changes occurring in the endosperm of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) during the malting process. This study shows that CRM combined with the employed computational processing can effectively distinguish and map several components even with strong spectral overlap.