Determination of geographical origin of Mustard oil based on multi-elemental fingerprinting using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and chemometric analysis

Abstract

In the present study samples of mustard were collected from 10 different provinces of India. The method is developed by using 20 different elements (Na, Mg, Al, P, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ar, Se, Rb, Sr, Mo, Cs, and Pb) using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The elemental data obtained from the ICP-MS were subjected to chemometric analysis for the classification of each sample. In this study, we have used Principal component analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), in order to group the samples according to their elemental composition. HCA showed five clusters corresponding to the geographical origin of the mustard. Finally from Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) models were developed which provided 100% accuracy. The elements Mg, P, Ca, Fe, Cr, Cu & Se were found be useful and were the most discriminating elements. Hence, this study provides potential elemental marker for identification of the geographical origin of the mustard in various geographical regions.