Multisource information fusion strategies of mass spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy data for authenticating the age and parts of Vietnamese ginseng

Aiming at two different classification tasks in the field of quality evaluation of valuable Chinese herbal medicine, the applicability of data fusion strategy based on different complementary analysis techniques was studied. In this study, attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR‐FTIR) and ultra‐performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (UPLC‐QTOF/MS) were used to analyze the different parts (including roots, stems, leaves, and fibrils) of 2‐to 5‐year‐old Vietnamese ginseng. The multivariate classification models (orthogonal partial least squares discrimination analysis, OPLS‐DA; support vector machine, SVM) were established using low‐level and mid‐level data fusion methods to identify different parts and age of Vietnamese ginseng. The OPLS‐DA model have shown that the fusion data matrix with low‐level fusion processing could separate Vietnamese ginseng samples with different growth years to the greatest extent, whereas the single data matrix had partial overlap. But 100% of prediction set classification accuracy could be achieved. The SVM model combined with two parameter optimization algorithms (grid search, GS; genetic algorithm, GA) was used to identify Vietnamese ginseng samples with different ages. The mid‐level fusion strategy based on the recursive feature elimination (RFE) features variable extraction method was more suitable for SVM model. In the model established by combining the two parameter optimization methods, the identification effect can reach 83.33%. The results showed that data fusion, as an effective strategy, could distinguish different ages and parts of Vietnamese ginseng. Multisource information fusion is used for parts and age authentication of VG. CARS feature extraction method has improved the classification performance of SVM. Midlevel data fusion was confirmed to be more efficient on the age authentication.