Measurement of Protein in Latex Glove Using Computerized Colorimetric Protein Estimation Method

摘要

Proteins of the latex glove will become a potentialallergy threat to people who are frequently exposed to latex. Arobust way to control protein content is by estimating theamount of protein. Several established protein estimationmethods such as modified Lowry method and smartphone forpoint-of-care quantification of protein method have beenproposed. However, most of the conventional methods involvemany chemical processes, and time-consuming. In order toovercome those limitations, a novel method namedcomputerized colorimetric protein estimation (CCPE) isdesigned. The glove sample goes through chemical test toperform protein detection. Later, the sample is converted intodigital image through scanning process by using flatbedscanner. A new algorithm named smoothing colorimetricadaption (SCA) has been proposed to perform image filteringon smoothing the wrinkled surface of glove and colordifference formula to calculate the delta E, ?E data of glovesample. The experimented data is then plotted in a standardcurve and validated with the protein concentration data fromthe Malaysia Rubber Board (MRB). Based on the results, astrong correlation with R 2 percentage equal to 97% isestablished between both data. This indicates that the CCPEmethod provides reasonably practicable estimation of theprotein concentration.