Smartphone Application for Methanol Determination in Sugar Cane Spirits Employing Digital Image-Based Method
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Smartphone Application for Methanol Determination in Sugar Cane Spirits Employing Digital Image-Based Method Mathews de Oliveira Krambeck Franco 1 & Willian Toito Suarez 1 & Matheus Valentin Maia 1 & Vagner Bezerra dos Santos 2
Received: 27 September 2016 / Accepted: 18 December 2016 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract A simple, accurate, and low-cost analytical procedure for methanol determination in sugarcane spirits (cachaça) employing analysis of digital images is presented. A portable system with cheap materials and lighting system to obtain images from a smartphone was built and an RGB system was used for analytical purposes. The reaction for determination of methanol in beverages consists in methanol oxidation to methanal, and consequent formation of a violet chromophore in the presence of chromotropic acid on heating in an oven at 80 °C for 15 min. From the system optimization, analytical curves that showed good linearity for the green channel (from RGB) was built, with regression coefficient (R2) of 0.998. Relevant matrix effect in the samples was not verified, since the recovery percentage ranged from 83 to 110%. The results of methanol concentration in six cachaça samples obtained by the developed method were compared with using the spectrophotometric method with a confidence level of 95% (n = 3). The developed method has some economic and environmental benefits, since it has low reagent consumption with 800 μL per measured spot, as well as, it presents cheap and handle-easy devices, which encourages the quality control of this toxic and undesirable contaminant for smallholders and industries on production of sugar cane spirits.
* Willian Toito Suarez [email protected]
1
Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG 36570-900, Brazil
2
Instituto de Ciências Exatas e Naturais, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA 66075-110, Brazil
Keywords Spot test . Digital image analysis . Methanol . Sugar cane spirits . Cachaça . Food analysis . Food contamination
Introduction Sugarcane spirits or cachaça is a typical and exclusive denomination of the alcoholic beverage produced in Brazil, with an alcohol content of 38–48% v/v at 20 °C, it is obtained from the distillation of fermented sugarcane juice and presents peculiar sensory characteristics (Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply (MALS) from Brazil 2005a). The cachaça characteristics are associated with the chemical composition of the wort, which typically consists of 75– 82% water; 15–24% sugar (sucrose, glucose and fructose); low content of soluble solids (proteins, amino acids, fats, dyestuffs, etc.); as well as, inorganic compounds such as metal ions of aluminum, cadmium, calcium, lead, cobalt, copper, chromium, iron, zinc, and others (Luna et al. 2002). Among all compounds present in cachaça, methanol is more toxic and can cause severe acidosis, affecting the respiratory system and leading to coma. Moreover, after 2 days, one third of it still remains in the body, and its intake, even in small am
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