Discrimination of Cultivars and Cultivation Origins from the Sepals of Dry Persimmon Using FT-IR Spectroscopy Combined with Multivariate Analysis

This study aimed to establish a rapid system for discriminating the cultivation origins and cultivars of dry persimmons, using metabolite fingerprinting by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis. Whole-cell extracts from the sepals of four Korean cultivars and two different Chinese dry persimmons were subjected to FT-IR spectroscopy. Principle component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) of the FT-IR spectral data successfully discriminated six dry persimmons into two groups depending on their cultivation origins. Principal component loading values showed that the 1750-1420 and regions of the FT-IR spectra were significantly important for the discrimination of cultivation origins. The accuracy of prediction of the cultivation origins and cultivars by PLS regression was 100% (p