Discrimination of Korean Tobacco's Aroma and Tastes using the Eloctronic Nose/Tongue and Their feasibility in Tobacco Sensory Evaluation

The purpose of this study was the discrimination of different tobacco types by the E-Nose/tongue and the analysis of what human sensory attributes are correlated with e-instrument's sensors. Samples were made from five groups of Korean domestic tobacco leaves, aged burley and not aged, aged flue-cured and not aged and blending types of the four. Instrumental tests were conducted to discriminate characteristics among different tobacco samples by the E-Nose and the E-Tongue. Sensory attributes of tobacco tastes were impact, irritation, bitterness, hay-like, tobacco taste, smoke volume, smoke pungent and mouth cleanness. STATISTICA software was used to analyze correlation between the human sensory data and the raw data of e-instruments. Discrimination analysis can be achieved using principal components analysis (PCA) and discriminant factorial analysis(DFA). As a result, impact, bitterness, irritation, smoke volume and smoke pungent of human sensory attributes were correlated with data from the several clustered E-Nose sensors(p < 0.10). And bitterness, irritation, and smoke pungent of human sensory attributes were correlated with data from the E-Tongue sensors(p < 0.10). PCA plot by the E-Nose shows that aged tobacco and not aged were discriminated and DFA plot shows that three groups(aged burley, not aged burley and flue-cured) were discriminated. PCA plot by the E- Tongue shows that flue-cured tobacco was separated from burley. Our results indicated that the e-instruments are sensitive enough to distinguish among tobacco types and their several sensors are reacted to the human sensory attributes.