  Salicylic acid (SA) is a primary phytohormone released in response to stress,
particularly biotic infections in plants. Monitoring SA levels may provide a
way for early disease detection in crops providing a way for applying effective
measures for reducing agricultural losses while increase our agricultural
efficiency. Additionally, SA is an important chemical used extensively in the
pharmaceutical and healthcare industry due to its analgesic and
anti-inflammatory properties. Developing a fast and accurate way for monitoring
SA levels in human serum can have a life-saving impact for patients suffering
from overdosing and/or mis-dosing. In this work, we present a low-cost,
portable, and field-deployable electrochemical SA sensing system aimed towards
achieving the above-mentioned goals. The developed sensor consists of a
plug-and-play type device equipped with specialized designed high accuracy
sensing electronics and a novel procedure for robust data analysis. The
developed sensor exhibits excellent linearity and sensitivity and selectivity.
The practical applicability of the developed sensor was also demonstrated by
measuring SA levels in real samples with good accuracy.
