A Group of IPB Researchers Utilized NIR spectroscopy to Analyse Quality of Gedong Gincu Mango
Gedong Gincu (GG) mango is the most delicious mango and considered very special mango in Indonesia. During the kingdom era, the Gedong Gincu mango could only be consumed by king's family members. Ordinary people were prohibited to eat this mango. Gedong Gincu mango has a sweet taste sour if it is ripe. Gincu means lipstick. Gedong Gincu is the reddish gedong mango. This mango will be called mango gedong lipstick if there is a reddish orange color on the skin. Gedong Gincu has reddish to yellowish skin colour and has been in demand of domestic and export market. A ripe Gedong Gincu mango has reddish skin and fragrant aroma. The colour aspect also has its own charm. The flesh is yellow-coloured and fibrous, makes it slightly difficult to cut.
Maturity stage of fresh Gedong Gincu fruit is an important factor that affects the fruit quality during ripening and marketability after ripening. It has been widely known that there are many parameters can be used to determine maturity stages of Gedong Gincu mango. These include age, size, skin colour, firmness, and smell. The unripe Gedong Gincu mango skin is green colour and over time they begins to reddish like a lipstick that signifies that the mango is ripe. However, to determine the sweet or sour taste in mango fruit can’t be seen visually. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a method of determining the quality of Gedong Gincu mango based on the age of quotation and the degree of aging on the mangoes with the non-destructive method, one of which is potential with NIR spectroscopy (Near Infrared Spectroscopy).
A group of researchers of the Department of Mechanical and Biosystem Engineering, of the Faculty of Agricultural Technology of Bogor Agricultural University (FATETA IPB), who are also researchers of the Research Center Tropical Horticulture (PKHT) of the Institute of Research and Community Empowerment of IPB (LPPM), namely Y. Aris Purwanto, I Wayan Budiastra, and Noneng Fahri, to predict the soluble solid content, total acid, sugar acid ratio, and crude fiber of Gedong Gincu mango using Near infrared Spectroscopy (NIR).
"Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a spectroscopic method that uses the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum (from 780 nm to 2500 nm). The applications in other areas for the analyse Gedong Gincu mango will provide information related to the observed mango," Aris said.
Aris explained that NIR technology uses infrared waves. "Later we can find out whether the fruit is ripe or unripe non-destructively. So later there is a tool attached to the fruit to predict the chemical contents of Gedong Gincu mango non-destructively. The application will display the scale that describes whether the observed fruits ripe or unripe, sweet or sour depending on the parameters, "he explained.
The experiment concluded that that infra-red spectroscopy method can be used to classify non-destructive Gedong Gincu mango based on acid sugar content ratio. Based on NIRS prediction results, the researchers found out that 19 samples were classified as sour, 26 samples were classified as sweet-sour, and 1 sample were categorized as sweet with an accuracy of 77 percent.
The researcher hopes that in the future this tool will be developed for various agricultural commodities in Indonesia. "So we are trying to develop this device to analyse not only the ripe or unripe fruits, and the sweet or sour based on the sugar content displayed on the application. the developed model could be used to predict the chemical contents of Gedong Gincu mango non-destructively. But we will also develop for various agricultural commodities with different parameters for each commodity, "he explained.
Currently Aris along with other researchers consisting of Slamet Widodo and I Wayan Budisastra are developing non destructive measurement methods of agricultural products using Low cost NIR spectrometer and android based smartphones to be applied in real time on the field. (Wied)
