Discrimination of the cultivar, growing region, and geographical origin of rice (Oryza sativa) using a mass spectrometer-based electronic nose.

The objective of this study was to discrimination the cultivar, growing region, and geographical origin of rice (Oryza sativa) using a mass spectrometry-based electronic nose (MSE-nose). The inside-needle dynamic extraction (INDEX) system was used to concentrate the samples for MSEnose, following which the ion fragment data obtained were used to perform discriminant function analysis. Discriminant functions 1 and 2 readily separated all 16 cultivars of rice sampled. It was also confirmed that MSE-nose could distinguish the region in which rice cv. Chucheong and Koshihikari were grown, likely due to variation in environmental factors, such as soil and climate. Finally, it was confirmed that MSE-nose could be used to detect the geographical origin of rice, discrimination Korea rice from Japanese rice. Therefore, this simple and rapid technique is of value for discriminating the cultivar, growing region, and geographical origin of rice.