Protein and lipid content estimation in soybeans using Raman hyperspectral imaging

Unlike standard chemical analysis methods involving time-consuming, labor-intensive, and invasive pretreatment procedures, Raman hyperspectral imaging (HSI) can rapidly and non-destructively detect components without professional supervision. Generally, the Kjeldahl methods and Soxhlet extraction are used to chemically determine the protein and lipid content of soybeans. This study is aimed at developing a high-performance model for estimating soybean protein and lipid content using a non-destructive Raman HSI. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) techniques were used to develop the model using a calibration model based on 70% spectral data, and the remaining 30% of the data were used for validation. The results indicate that the Raman HSI, combined with PLSR, resulted in a protein and lipid model R(p) (2) of 0.90 and 0.82 with Root Mean Squared Error Prediction (RMSEP) 1.27 and 0.79, respectively. Additionally, this study successfully used the Raman HSI approach to create a prediction image showing the distribution of the targeted components, and could predict protein and lipid based on a single seeds.