4. Conclusions
ScCO2 extracted Camellia oils were prepared under various pressure, temperature and period conditions. The oil quality parameter acid value and peroxide value of pressed, n-hexane extracted and scCO2 extracted oils were investigated according to National Standard. An analytical method involving electronic tongue technique combined with qualitative and quantitative analysis was proposed to discriminate oil variety and quantify oil acid value and peroxide value. The PCA and HCA results obtained in this work successfully discriminated oils by different processed methods, even further classification among scCO2 samples were achieved satisfactorily. Furthermore, the use of MLRM has evidenced good predictive capacity of acid value and peroxide value, regardless of different extraction process. More work remains to be done to improve the prediction precision and to validate the suggested approach as only limited samples was determined in this preliminary study. Nevertheless, the practical potential of e-tongue as taste sensor for the successful classification and assessment of Camellia oils has been demonstrated, which is promising to be a complementary technique in the characterization of Camellia oils in the quality evaluation.