Rapid on-site multi-indicator detection of Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua by handheld near-infrared spectroscopy with wavelength selection

[Display omitted] •Total polysaccharide, flavonoid, and saponin of Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua were rapidly determined by NIR spectroscopy.•The 3 components were accurately determined with the aid of the 3 wavelength selection methods.•The on-site detection was achieved by a handheld NIR spectrometer.•This method solves the practical problem of quality inspection of Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua. The rapid, accurate, and on-site quantitative evaluation of the 3 components (total polysaccharide, total flavonoid, and total saponin) of Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua (PCH) is of great significance to ensure the value of its medicine and food, for this purpose, a handheld near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer was used. The raw NIR spectra were preprocessed by seven methods and their combinations, then three kinds of wavelength selection algorithms, the competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS), random frog (RF) sampling, and Monte Carlo uninformative variable elimination (MCUVE) were applied, and the characteristic wavelengths for total polysaccharide, total saponin, and total flavonoid in PCH were obtained, respectively. Subsequently, the partial least squares (PLS) regression models were developed. The results showed that the combination of first derivative and standard normal variate was the optimal pretreatment method, and CARS had the highest performance of the wavelength selection for total polysaccharide and total flavonoid, while RF was the highest for total saponin. With these selected wavelengths, 3 PLS prediction models were built, and their performances were validated with unknown samples, the results showed that the determination coefficient of the prediction set (R2P) of total polysaccharide, total saponin, and total flavonoid were 0.980, 0.948, and 0.942, respectively, and the corresponding root mean square error of prediction set (RMSEP) were 0.162, 0.142, and 0.052. Furthermore, the residual prediction deviations (RPDs) of the three components were all larger than 3, demonstrating the prediction performance of the models was high. Therefore, the three active functional components in PCH could be rapidly determined by a handheld NIR spectrometer, which would be beneficial for ensuring the quality of PCH.