Development of Unique Signature to Define the Extent of Adulteration in Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) by Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) System

Adulteration of expensive vegetable oils with other cheaper vegetable oils is increasing within the oil traders all across the world. Therefore, developing a method for detection of adulteration in expensive vegetable oil like VCO would be useful. In this study, an android mobile application which can generate signature and barcodes has been developed based on the response (p < 0.05) coupled with the optimized condition of LSPR system for different adulterations in VCO with coconut oil (CO) and mustard oil (MO). The discriminant analysis with samples showed a gradual shift to right with the adulteration, demonstrating the independency of the prediction. The correct % of validated samples was observed to be 81.67% and 80% for adulterated sample of VCO with MO and CO respectively with a cumulative variance of 100%. The LOD and LOQ were found to be 0.23 and 0.77 and 0.21 and 0.72 for adulterated samples of VCO with CO and MO respectively with a linearity range of 10 to 90%. The results showed that the technique has a faster response and lower cost than other conventional methods like FT-R or GC–MS/MS for the detection of adulteration in VCO. However, further research is needed for the advancement of android mobile application and to make the system compatible to detect adulteration with other cheap oils. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.)