Near-infrared spectroscopy for rapid evaluation of different processing products of Sophora japonica L.

ABSTRACT To analyze the content of rutin in differently processed products of Sophora japonica L., a combination of near-infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics was used. Factors that affect near infrared spectroscopy modeling were investigated, and the optimal spectral conditions were determined. As a reference method, the rutin content was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection in 99 groups of products. Near-infrared spectra were collected by optimal near infrared acquisition conditions and the spectral features were enhanced by several preprocessing methods. Moreover, a near-infrared quantitative calibration model of rutin was established using partial least squares analysis. The root-mean-square standard error of cross validation and correlation coefficient (cross validation) were calculated as 0.800 and 0.9399, whereas the root-mean-square standard error of calibration and correlation coefficient (calibration) were 0.558 and 0.9709. This indicates that there is a good correlation between the predicted value and the actual measured value. Moreover, the root-mean-square standard error of prediction and correlation coefficient (validation) were calculated as 0.495 and 0.9785. And the ratio of the root-mean-square standard error of calibration and root-mean-square standard error of prediction was as small as 0.89 (≤1.2). The relative deviation between the predicted value and the reference value of the model was −11.02 to 8.02%, and the ratio of performance to deviation was 4.70 (>3). Thus, these data indicate that the accuracy of the model used to predict the results was sufficient. In conclusion, the calibration model presented in this study provides satisfactory performance in a rapid, quantitative analysis of the rutin proportion by a simple, fast, and high accuracy of the prediction results.