Volatile constituents of benzoin gums: Siam and Sumatra, part 3. Fast characterization with an electronic nose

The quality control of natural raw materials is a challenging issue for the food, cosmetic, perfume and tobacco industries. The applicability of an electronic nose for the discrimination of origin, qualities and harvesting year of a natural raw material (benzoin gum) currently used by all those industries was tested. An electronic nose including 18 metal oxide sensors was used to analyse and discriminate 56 benzoin gum samples according to their origin (Siam and Sumatra), quality grade, variety (mixture of gums traded as benzoin gums) and year of harvesting. Thanks to its sensitivity, the electronic nose based on metal oxide sensors demonstrated a high ability to assess both the quality and the organoleptic features of the benzoin gum samples. Fast analysis and ease of use make this instrument a good quality control tool. A comparison with an electronic nose based on fingerprint mass spectrometry was also studied. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.