title: Independent comparison study of six different electronic tongues applied for pharmaceutical analysis.
abstract: Electronic tongue technology based on arrays of cross-sensitive chemical sensors and chemometric data processing has attracted a lot of researchers' attention through the last years. Several so far reported applications dealing with pharmaceutical related tasks employed different e-tongue systems to address different objectives. In this situation, it is hard to judge on the benefits and drawbacks of particular e-tongue implementations for R&D in pharmaceutics. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of six different e-tongues applied to the same set of pharmaceutical samples. For this purpose, two commercially available systems (from Insent and AlphaMOS) and four laboratory prototype systems (two potentiometric systems from Warsaw operating in flow and static modes, one potentiometric system from St. Petersburg, one voltammetric system from Barcelona) were employed. The sample set addressed in the study comprised nine different formulations based on caffeine citrate, lactose monohydrate, maltodextrine, saccharin sodium and citric acid in various combinations. To provide for the fair and unbiased comparison, samples were evaluated under blind conditions and data processing from all the systems was performed in a uniform way. Different mathematical methods were applied to judge on similarity of the e-tongues response from the samples. These were principal component analysis (PCA), RV' matrix correlation coefficients and Tuckeŕs congruency coefficients.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf, Universitaetsstr. 1, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany. Electronic address: miriam.pein@hhu.de.
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pein
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya nab. 7/9, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia; Laboratory of Artificial Sensory Systems, ITMO University, Kronverskiy pr. 49, 197101 St. Petersburg, Russia. Electronic address: d.kirsanov@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Dmitry
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kirsanov
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbioanalytics, Warsaw University of Technology, Noakowskiego 3, 00-664 Warsaw, Poland. Electronic address: pciosek@ch.pw.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Patrycja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ciosek
authors.affiliation: Sensors and Biosensors Group, Department of Chemistry, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici Cn, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: manel.delvalle@uab.es.
authors.forename: Manel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: del Valle
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya nab. 7/9, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia; Laboratory of Artificial Sensory Systems, ITMO University, Kronverskiy pr. 49, 197101 St. Petersburg, Russia. Electronic address: irina.s.yaroshenko@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Yaroshenko
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbioanalytics, Warsaw University of Technology, Noakowskiego 3, 00-664 Warsaw, Poland. Electronic address: wesolymalgorzata@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Małgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wesoły
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbioanalytics, Warsaw University of Technology, Noakowskiego 3, 00-664 Warsaw, Poland. Electronic address: zabadajmarcin@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zabadaj
authors.affiliation: Sensors and Biosensors Group, Department of Chemistry, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici Cn, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: andreu.gonzalez@uab.cat.
authors.forename: Andreu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Calabuig
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbioanalytics, Warsaw University of Technology, Noakowskiego 3, 00-664 Warsaw, Poland. Electronic address: wuwu@ch.pw.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wróblewski
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya nab. 7/9, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia; Laboratory of Artificial Sensory Systems, ITMO University, Kronverskiy pr. 49, 197101 St. Petersburg, Russia. Electronic address: andrey.legin@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Andrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Legin
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D002110:Caffeine / Q000032:analysis; D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D002951:Citrates / Q000032:analysis; D019343:Citric Acid / Q000032:analysis; D055615:Electrical Equipment and Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D007785:Lactose / Q000032:analysis; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000032:analysis; D011199:Potentiometry; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012439:Saccharin / Q000032:analysis; D013678:Technology, Pharmaceutical / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D002951:Citrates; D011134:Polysaccharides; D019343:Citric Acid; D002110:Caffeine; C008315:maltodextrin; D012439:Saccharin; D007785:Lactose; C026189:caffeine citrate
keywords: Blind conditions; Comparison; Electronic tongue; Taste masking