STABLE ISOTOPE FINGERPRINTING OF RICE VARIETIES AND CULTIVATION SYSTEMS USING EA–IRMS

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30605/58rh2z84

Keywords:

isotope ratio, EA–IRMS, rice authentication, δ13C, δ15N

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple food for more than half of the global population and is available in various types, including white, red, black, brown, and basmati rice. Authentication of rice varieties and cultivation systems is increasingly important for ensuring food quality and preventing fraud. This study aimed to characterize the stable isotope composition of different rice types and to evaluate isotopic differences between organic and conventional cultivation systems using Elemental Analyzer–Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (EA–IRMS). Carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope ratios were measured in seven rice samples. The results showed that δ¹³C values ranged from −30.33‰ to −28.06‰, confirming that all samples belong to the C₃ photosynthetic group, while δ¹⁵N values ranged from 4.29‰ to 6.05‰, reflecting variability in nitrogen sources and soil processes. Each rice type exhibited a distinct isotopic profile, indicating the potential of isotope ratios as fingerprints for varietal differentiation. However, isotopic differences between organic and conventional samples were not consistently distinguishable due to overlapping values. These findings suggest that stable isotope analysis has potential as a tool for rice authentication in the Indonesian market. Nevertheless, the limited sample size in this study indicates that the results should be considered preliminary, and further validation using larger datasets and multivariate statistical approaches is required to improve classification accuracy.

References

Bandumula, N. (2018). Rice Production in Asia: Key to Global Food Security. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences India Section B - Biological Sciences, 88(4), 1323–1328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-017-0867-7

Basith, A., Noer, S., & Faizah, M. (2023). VARIASI TINGKAT KANDUNGAN ANTOSIANIN PADA EMPAT VARIETAS LOKAL PADI BERAS HITAM (Oryza sativa L.) INDONESIA. Jurnal Pertanian, 14(1): 1-6. https://doi.org/10.30997/jp.v14i1.7152

Birch, Q. T., Potter, P. M., Pinto, P. X., Dionysiou, D. D., & Al-Abed, S. R. (2021). Isotope ratio mass spectrometry and spectroscopic techniques for microplastics characterization. Talanta, 224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2020.121743

Cernusak, L. A., Ubierna, N., Winter, K., Holtum, J. A. M., Marshall, J. D., & Farquhar, G. D. (2013). Environmental and physiological determinants of carbon isotope discrimination in terrestrial plants. In New Phytologist (Vol. 200, Number 4, pp. 950–965). https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.12423

Chen, L., & Bontempo, L. (2025). Application of isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) in the geographical determination of selected herbs: A review. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 183, 118107. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2024.118107

Chen, X., Yang, Y., Yang, X., Zhu, G., Lu, X., Jia, F., Diao, B., Yu, S., Ali, A., Zhang, H., Xu, P., Liao, Y., Sun, C., Zhou, H., Liu, Y., Wang, Y., Zhu, J., Xiang, Q., & Wu, X. (2022). Investigation of flavonoid components and their associated antioxidant capacity in different pigmented rice varieties. Food Research International, 161, 111726. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2022.111726

Eggels, S., Blankenagel, S., Schön, C. C., & Avramova, V. (2021). The carbon isotopic signature of C4 crops and its applicability in breeding for climate resilience. In Theoretical and Applied Genetics (Vol. 134, Number 6, pp. 1663–1675). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-020-03761-3

Georgiou, C. A., & Danezis, G. P. (2015). Chapter 3 - Elemental and Isotopic Mass Spectrometry. In Y. Picó (Ed.), Comprehensive Analytical Chemistry (Vol. 68, pp. 131–243). Elsevier. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-63340-8.00003-0

Gori, Y., Deklerck, V., & Camin, F. (2025). Stable isotope ratio analysis to determine the geographical origin of timber: A review. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 193, 118448. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2025.118448

Guo, Z., Li, C., Li, X., Shao, S., Rogers, K. M., Li, Q., Li, D., Guo, H., Huang, T., & Yuan, Y. (2024). Fertilizer Effects on the Nitrogen Isotope Composition of Soil and Different Leaf Locations of Potted Camellia sinensis over a Growing Season. Plants, 13(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13121628

Huang, M., Li, X., Hu, L., Xiao, Z., Chen, J., & Cao, F. (2021). Comparing texture and digestion properties between white and brown rice of indica cultivars preferred by Chinese consumers. Scientific Reports, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-98681-7

Kasote, D., Singh, V. K., Bollinedi, H., Singh, A. K., Sreenivasulu, N., & Regina, A. (2021). Profiling of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline and other volatile compounds in raw and cooked rice of traditional and improved varieties of india. Foods, 10(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10081917

Kim, K. S., Kim, J. S., Hwang, I. M., Jeong, I. S., Khan, N., Lee, S. I., Jeon, D. B., Song, Y. H., & Kim, K. S. (2013). Application of stable isotope ratio analysis for origin authentication of pork. Korean Journal for Food Science of Animal Resources, 33(1), 39–44. https://doi.org/10.5851/kosfa.2013.33.1.39

Kohn, M. J. (2010). Carbon isotope compositions of terrestrial C3 plants as indicators of (paleo)ecology and (paleo)climate. Ecology, 107. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1004933107/-/DCSupplemental

Lancaster, S. T., Irrgeher, J., Dallmayr, R., Conrad, E., Hörhold, M., Bohleber, P., Behrens, M., Camin, F., Žagar, K., Vreča, P., & Prohaska, T. (2025). δ(18O/16O) Determinations in Water Using Inductively Coupled Plasma–Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Analytical Chemistry, 97(38), 20788–20797. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.5c02607

Malabadi, R. B., Kolkar, K. P., & Chalannavar, R. K. (2022). White, and Brown Rice-Nutritional value and Health benefits; Arsenic Toxicity in Rice plants. International Journal of Innovation Scientific Research and Review, 04(07). 3065-3082.

Mogoginta, J. G., Murai, T., & Annor, G. A. (2024). Starch Characteristics and Amylopectin Unit and Internal Chain Profiles of Indonesian Rice (Oryza sativa). Foods, 13(15). https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13152422

Nishida, M. (2018). Natural 15N Abundance Can Aid the Discrimination of Organic and Conventional Rice. Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, 53(3), 173-180. https://doi.org/10.6090/jarq.52.173

REN, S.J., & YU, G.R. (2011). Carbon isotope composition (δ13C) of C3 plants and water use efficiency in China. Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology, 35(2), 119-124. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1258.2011.00119

Richards, R. A. (2006). Physiological traits used in the breeding of new cultivars for water-scarce environments. Agricultural Water Management, 80(1-3), 197-211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2005.07.013

Robinson, D. (2001). δ15N as an integrator of the nitrogen cycle. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 16(3), 153–162. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(00)02098-X

Rogers, K. M., Martin, A. P., Pradel, G., Yuan, Y., Zhang, Y., & Turnbull, R. E. (2022). Elemental and isotopic compositions of New Zealand regional soils identifies human and climate-induced effects. Applied Geochemistry, 143, 105356. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2022.105356

Saurer, M., Siegwolf, R. T. W., & Schweingruber, F. H. (2004). Carbon isotope discrimination indicates improving water-use efficiency of trees in northern Eurasia over the last 100 years. Global Change Biology, 10(12), 2109–2120. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2004.00869.x

Snyder, K. A., Robinson, S. A., Schmidt, S., & Hultine, K. R. (2022). Stable isotope approaches and opportunities for improving plant conservation. In Conservation Physiology (Vol. 10, Number 1). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coac056

Wadood, S. A., Chunlin, L., Nie, J., Rogers, K. M., Mei, H., Zhang, Y., Shah, I. U., Qamar, A., & Yuan, Y. (2024). Stable isotopic fingerprinting of authentic basmati rice from Pakistan. Food Control, 157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2023.110166

Wang, Z., Liu, J., Wang, Y., Agathokleous, E., Hamoud, Y. A., Qiu, R., Hong, C., Tian, M., Shaghaleh, H., & Guo, X. (2022). Relationships between stable isotope natural abundances (δ13C and δ15N) and water use efficiency in rice under alternate wetting and drying irrigation in soils with high clay contents. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.1077152

Xiao, Y., Liu, J., Li, Y., Wang, Z., Xin, P., Zhang, J., Zhang, M., Lu, N., Wang, J., & Ma, W. (2026). Leaf morphology-δ13C synergy in drought response and G×E interactions in Toona sinensis. Trees, Forests and People, 24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tfp.2026.101189

Yuan, Y., Zhang, W., Zhang, Y., Liu, Z., Shao, S., Zhou, L., & Rogers, K. M. (2018). Differentiating Organically Farmed Rice from Conventional and Green Rice Harvested from an Experimental Field Trial Using Stable Isotopes and Multi-Element Chemometrics. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 66(11), 2607–2615. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.7b05422

Downloads

Published

2026-06-09

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2026): April - Juni 2026

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Rahmad Ramdani Sambari, Na’ilah Insani Alifiyah

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In submitting the manuscript to the journal, the authors certify that:

  • They are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
  • The work described has not been formally published before, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, thesis, or overlay journal.
  • That it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere,
  • That its publication has been approved by all the author(s) and by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out.
  • They secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere.
  • They agree to the following license and copyright agreement.

License and Copyright Agreement

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

How to Cite

STABLE ISOTOPE FINGERPRINTING OF RICE VARIETIES AND CULTIVATION SYSTEMS USING EA–IRMS. (2026). Jurnal Biogenerasi, 11(2), 816-823. https://doi.org/10.30605/58rh2z84