ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE： To establish the elimination method of outliers based on Grubbs rule and MATLAB language， and to evaluate the effects of it on drug bitterness evaluation. METHODS： Referring to Grubbs rule， the automatic cyclic outliers elimination method based on MATLAB language was established. Totally 20 volunteers were included in single oral taste test （Tetrapanax papyrifer） and multiple oral taste test （10 kinds of medicinal material as T. papyrifer， Changium smyrnioides， Poria cocos， etc.）. Seven sensors were selected for electronic tongue test （Clematis armandii）. The data of bitterness evaluation in above tests （oral taste test as bitterness value， electronic tongue test as response value of sensors） were used as the data source. Five researchers were selected and adopted table-by-table elimination method based on Grubbs rule （method one）， Excel software elimination method based on Grubbs rule （method two） and automatic cyclic outliers elimination method based on Grubbs rule and MATLAB language （method three） to judge and eliminate the outliers. The effects of above three methods were evaluated with the removal time and error rate of outliers as indexes. RESULTS： There were two outliers in the data of bitterness evaluation in single oral taste test； the elimination time of the three methods were（745.400 0±25.904 4），（288.333 3±31.253 1）and（0.000 3±0.000 0）s， respectively； error rates were 20.0％， 0 and 0， respectively. There were six outliers in the data of bitterness evaluation in multiple oral taste test； the elimination time of three methods were （3 693.107 7±75.023 3）， （1 494.761 4±53.826 9）， （0.005 2±0.000 0）s， respectively； error rates were 10.0％， 4.0％， 0， respectively. There were three outliers in the data of bitterness evaluation in electronic tongue test； the elimination time of three methods were （2 992.673 3±84.117 6）， （1 276.367 1±55.024 5）， （0.002 3±0.000 0）s， respectively； error rates were 5.7％， 2.9％， 0， respectively. The elimination results of the three methods were consistent. The elimination time of method two was significantly shorter than that of method one （P＜0.01）； the elimination time of method three was significantly shorter than those of method one and method two （P＜0.01）. There was no significant difference in error rate of 3 methods （P＞0.05）. CONCLUSIONS： The automatic cyclic elimination method of outliers based on Grubbs rule and MATLAB language can significantly shorten the elimination time of outliers in data of drug bitterness evaluation， improve the efficiency of data processing， and is suitable for drug bitterness evaluation.