Fragrance Profiling of Jasminum Sambac Ait. Flowers Using Electronic Nose

The extract of Jasmine called concrete is an important floricultural export commodity of India. The major quality attribute of both jasmine and concrete is fragrance. The fragrance profile of jasmine flower has been studied using a custom built handheld e-Nose (HEN). Three species of jasmine, J. Sambac, J. Grandiflorum, and J. Auriculatum were applied to e-Nose one by one. The principal component analysis of the responses showed that distinct clusters were formed for different species. Another study was made on the mostly cultivated J. Sambac species to find out a relationship between concrete quality with various flowering stages as well as with seasonal variation. Experiments were carried out over 200 samples collected from various gardens of South India. Multivariate sensor data were computed in a single dimensional intensity value termed as fragrance index (FI). Flowering stages were classified by Industry experts in terms of bud opening indicator (BOI). HEN was trained to formulate a scale of BOI in the range of 0-2 based on the FI. Best quality of concrete is found to be obtained from jasmine flower with BOI level of 1.5. Jasmine concrete, produced at laboratory from flowers harvested at different time-of-the-day, i.e., with different BOI levels were analysed using GC-MS to check the volatile emission patterns. Results showed that concrete produced with BOI level 1.5 emitted maximum aroma generating volatiles. These observations showed that e-Nose can be a potential gadget for fragrance profiling as well as selection of best quality flowers for concrete extraction.