Rapid and simple methods to determine histamine in tuna fish have been examined. A dry extract system for infrared (DESIR) was coupled with near-infrared spectroscopy in order to obtain the absorption of histamine in tuna fish at the ppm level. The result showed that the optimal extraction solvent for preparing DESIR samples was 75% methanol and boiling water (100 °C). Calibration equations were developed and tested by independent validation set samples. The calibration equation developed from boiling water as solvent extraction was slightly better than the equation developed from 75% methanol solvent with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.79, a standard error of calibration of 2.45 ppm, a standard error of prediction of 2.94 ppm, and a bias of 0.10 ppm. Furthermore, the predicted values from both equations were not significantly different from the reference values obtained from the standard method at the 95% confidence interval. Compared to the current AOAC fluorometric official method, the proposed technique simplified and reduced the preparation time.

The sodium chloride content in the flesh of tuna fish is one of the factors for determining the price in the fishing industry. Titration is a standard method for the analysis of salt and this is time consuming. Near infrared spectroscopy is a potential alternative method for rapid detection without the need for wet chemical assay. Although sodium chloride is infrared inactive, this study investigated the influence of salt on the absorbance of near infrared energy and showed that the sodium chloride content can be determined using changes in the water band at 970 nm. Calibration equations were developed from frozen fish pieces and ground samples using multiple linear regression for the wavelength region of 700–1000 nm. The best result was achieved from frozen samples with a coefficient of determination for the calibration set ([Formula: see text]) = 0.71, standard error of calibration (SEC) = 0.20%, coefficient of determination for the validation set ([Formula: see text]) = 0.64, standard error of prediction (SEP) = 0.26% and bias = − 0.00%. In order to verify the significant variables used to determine infrared inactive sodium chloride, partial least squares regression was performed on frozen samples. The important variable in multiple linear regression and partial least squares regression was the absorbance band at 976 nm attributed to water molecules. The result from partial least squares calibration showed [Formula: see text] = 0.83, SEC = 0.20%, [Formula: see text] = 0.54, SEP = 0.25% and bias = 0.00%. The salt values predicted using the near infrared models were not significantly different from the reference values obtained by the standard titration method at the 95% confidence interval.

The elephant ivory trade remains controversial because of concerns about the extinction risk of elephants and the different needs of CITES member states.Thailand's situation is particularly contentious because of the different legal status among types of elephant ivory. Thai law allows the local sale of ivory from domesticated Asian elephants, which creates challenges for Thai enforcement officers in identification of ivory provenance. We investigated the capacity of non-destructive Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy (600-1700 nm), combined with Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), to discriminate between ivory from African, wild Asian and domesticated Asian elephants. Ivory spectra of 64 elephants were divided randomly into calibration and validation datasets. We were able to determine elephant ivory provenance at both the interspecies (African and Asian elephant ivory), and within species (wild and domesticated Asian elephant ivory) classifications with 100% accuracy. These results showed the potential use of handheld NIR spectrometers for rapid assessments of ivory provenance, as well as a forensic tool for wider enforcement.