Fast Determination of the Rubber Content in Taraxacum kok-saghyz Fresh Biomass Using Portable Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography

Taraxacum kok-saghyz(TKS)is a plant native to the Tianshan valley on the border between China and Kazakhstan.TKS rubber is a good substitute for natural rubber.TKS's breeding work necessitates the need to screen high-yielding varieties,hence rapid determination of rubber content is essential for the screening.Conventional analytical methods cannot meet actual needs in terms of real-time testing and economic cost.Near-infrared spectroscopy analysis technology,which has developed rapidly in the field of industrial process analysis in recent years,is a green detection technology with obvious merits of fast measurement speed,low cost and no sample loss.This research aims to develop a portable non-destructive near-infrared spectroscopic detection scheme to evaluate the content of natural rubber in TKS fresh roots.Pyrolysis gas chromatography(Py-GC)was chosen as the reference method for the development of NIR prediction model.208 TKS fresh root samples were collected from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China.Near-infrared spectra were acquired for all samples.Randomly,two-thirds of them were selected as the calibration set,the remaining one-third as the validation set,and the partial least squares method was successfully established a good NIR prediction model for rubber content at 1080-1800 nm with a ratio of performance to deviation(RPD)of 5.54 and coefficient of determination(R^(2))of 0.95.This study showed that portable near-infrared spectroscopy could be used with ease for large-scale screening of TKS plants in farmland,and could greatly facilitate TKS germplasm preservation,high-yield cultivation,environment-friendly,high-efficiency and low-cost rubber extraction,and comprehensive advancement of the natural rubber industry thereof.