Detecting Ocimene in mango using mustard oil based quartz crystal microbalance sensor

A vegetable mustard (MUS) oil based quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor has been developed to detect Ocimene (OCM), one of the significant flavor enhancing compounds in mango. After testing with all the vegetables oils, MUS oil is found to be the most efficient with sensitivity factor of 0.276 Hz/ppm with satisfactory repeatability and reproducibility. The sensor exhibits a linear range of concentration (1-1000 ppm) with limit of detection of 1.04 ppm. The sensor is demonstrable in detecting the intended OCM with high selectivity from other dominant flavors involved in mango. The sensor can be used upto three months with minimum drift in frequency. Additionally, sensor response shows a good congruence with the GC-MS data with a correlation factor of 0.96. Further, the response of MUS-QCM sensor to the real mango samples has been found to be verifiable for quality assessment of most popular mango varieties viz. Alphonso, Gulabkhas, and Himsagar.