An Inexpensive and Novel Optical Scheme of Assessing Adulterants in Emulsions

Abstract

An inexpensive way of polarimetric detection of urea as an adulterant in milk is reported. The novelty of the underlying experimental technique lies in its implementation of the Laurent half-shade polarimeter as the optical sensing unit. Different specific rotations are examined corresponding to varying concentrations of urea in milk. The experimental results are ascertained to go in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. The detection setup is found to be cost-effective, user-friendly, and less time-consuming, as compared to conventional techniques, with a remarkable detection limit (~ 0.4 mg/ml).