Applications and Perspectives of Bioelectronic Nose - Bioelectronic Nose: Integration of Biotechnology and Nanotechnology - page 258

Table 14.1 Examples of applications of bioelectronic noses
Industry Application fields Specific use types

Biomedicine Pathogen or disease detection Early diagnosis of sever diseases, patient

condition care, metabolic disorders

Food and beverage Quality control, fermenta-

tion process, bacterial
contamination

Ingredient confirmation, off-flavor, spoil-
age, fermentation control

Fragrance and flavor Consumer's expectation, ripe-

ness, freshness

Cosmetics, perfumes, brand recognition
(ex, coffee product)

Environmental
monitoring

Air and water pollution moni-
toring, indoor air monitoring

Fugitive emission, malodor, greenhouse
gas emission, toxic gas and spills

bioelectronic nose is expected to open up many new possibilities to improve the
quality of our life.

14.1 Applications

The human nose can discriminate among hundreds of thousands of odorant mole-
cules [ 1 , 2 ]. The olfactory sense in all animals, including human, is used to evaluate
food, drink and environmental toxic materials. Recently, many studies on sensing
devices mimicking the human olfactory system have been reported, and the possi-
bility for numerous applications has been suggested [ 3 - 6 ]. The bioelectronic nose,
described in this topic, has a similar function to human olfaction, and a huge variety
of possible applications (Table 14.1 )

14.1.1 Diagnosis of Disease

Generally, numerous volatile and non-volatile organic compounds, including odor-
ous compounds, are emitted from various parts of human body, such as scalp, feet,
oral cavity, axillae, genital, and skin [ 7 ]. The emission of volatile compounds is
influenced by diet, stress, metabolic diseases, and immune status of the individual.
Thus, the change of body odor potentially represents various diseases and even
mental health (Table 14.2 ).
Ancient physicians considered that exhaled breath from human was associated
with a certain disease, and might reflect the disorder in physiological and patho-
physiological processes [ 36 ]. For example, diabetes gives a fruit-like smell of ac-
etone in a patient's breath [ 16 ]. Diabetic patients cannot metabolize carbohydrates,
including glucose, but catabolize fats into ketone bodies, such as acetone. Urine,
sweat, and skin, as well as the exhaled breath are the major paths to emit odorous
compounds, and they provide a lot of information about the condition of the human
body. Many current researches focus on the analysis of the breath or urine odor to
achieve a non-invasive and easy diagnosis.