Testing fragrance of jasmine to be easier & faster with 'E-Nose'

COIMBATORE: Testing the fragrance of jasmine flowers is all set to become an easier task. Researchers from the Floriculture Department of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Kolkata, have developed a hand-held device to measure the flower's fragrance.
Dubbed Electronic Nose or E-Nose can analyze the fragrance of the flower or the flower concrete in less than a minute.Flower concrete is a semi-solid waxy substance made from crushing and processing the flower. About 1kg of concrete can be made from one to 1.5tonnes of jasmine flower.
The gadget is expected to be a boon as it would bring down the cost of testing, speed up the testing process and create new standards in fragrance measurement.
Jasmine fragrance is now tested with a GC-MS (gas chromatography and mass spectography) instrument which is expensive and time consuming. "The machine costs around Rs15 to Rs40lakh, takes a minimum of three hours to give a reading and can be operated only by skilled personnel," said assistant professor of the floriculture department, K R Rajadurai. "It is also a destructive method where a much larger sample of flowers or concrete needs to be used for the reading," he said.
On the other hand, this new hand-held device and box-sized sample collector can be operated by any layman or farmer. "They need to collect 10gm of fresh flowers or a small paper strip of concrete and place it in the sample collector. The sensor analyzes the fragrance and gives an aroma index within 40 to 45 seconds," said M Kannan, head of the floriculture department.
The portable device has five censors to test five components of the flower or concrete. "The jasmine flower has around 120 components of which 10 are prominent. This machine tests five of them and gives an analysis," said Rajadurai.
The sensors basically absorb the fragrance components generated by headspace in the sample holder. The device's sensor then tests the fragrance and gives a reading. A team from C-DAC and the floriculture department are collecting feedback on the device from a private aromatic company in Mettupalayam and Jasmine Growers Association, Sathyamangalam, on Tuesday. Researchers had given the device and sample holder to both entities three months ago. "Once their feedback is received and the device is fine-tuned, we can start selling the technology and marketing it," said Kannan.
While a major portion of jasmine concrete is exported to France, fresh jasmine flowers are exported to many countries. The device would also help farmers decide on time of harvest. "They need to take a small sample of a few flowers and test it. Only if the aroma levels are satisfactory, they should harvest the flowers," said Rajadurai.