Non-destructive identification of Pseudostellaria heterophylla from different geographical origins by Vis/NIR and SWIR hyperspectral imaging techniques

Abstract

The composition of Pseudostellaria heterophylla (Tai-Zi-Shen, TZS) is greatly influenced by the growing area of the plants, making it significant to distinguish the origins of TZS. However, traditional methods for TZS origin identification are time-consuming, laborious, and destructive. To address this, two or three TZS accessions were selected from four different regions of China, with each of these resources including distinct quality grades of TZS samples. The visible near-infrared (Vis/NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral information from these samples were then collected. Fast and high-precision methods to identify the origins of TZS were developed by combining various preprocessing algorithms, feature band extraction algorithms (CARS and SPA), traditional two-stage machine learning classifiers (PLS-DA, SVM, and RF), and an end-to-end deep learning classifier (DCNN). Specifically, SWIR hyperspectral information outperformed Vis/NIR hyperspectral information in detecting geographic origins of TZS. The SPA algorithm proved particularly effective in extracting SWIR information that was highly correlated with the origins of TZS. The corresponding FD-SPA-SVM model reduced the number of bands by 77.2% and improved the model accuracy from 97.6% to 98.1% compared to the full-band FD-SVM model. Overall, two sets of fast and high-precision models, SWIR-FD-SPA-SVM and SWIR-FD-DCNN, were established, achieving accuracies of 98.1% and 98.7% respectively. This work provides a potentially efficient alternative for rapidly detecting the origins of TZS during actual production.