Abstract
The use of chromatographic fingerprints from herbal products where the whole chromatographic profile is applied, is an approach to evaluate the quality of the investigated product. In this paper, recent developments in the set-up and data analysis of chromatographic fingerprints for herbal products are discussed. First, different set-ups for fingerprint development are reviewed. Prior to the fingerprint development, a suitable sample preparation, e.g. extraction, should be considered. In a second instance, this review focuses on the data analysis with regards to the different fingerprint applications. Usually, chemometric data pretreatment is necessary. This is discussed first, followed by a short overview of the data handling techniques used in the two main application areas of herbal fingerprints, i.e. quality assurance and classification or calibration. The quality assurance, involving identification and quality control of the herbal products, is reviewed, followed by the use of fingerprints in classification or modelling. The different application areas are illustrated and discussed with several case studies.
Keywords: Chromatographic fingerprint, classification, data analysis, herbal products, identification, multivariate calibration, quality control, kava kava (Piper methysticum), Stephania tetrandra, Aristolochia fangchi, aristolochic acid, chromatographic Thin Layer Chromatography, Performance Thin Layer Chromatography, Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatography, Gas Chromatography, Pressurized Capillary Electro Chromatography, saponines, terpenes, sesquiterpenes, alkaloids, Artemisia capillaries, Curcuma wenyujin, Notopterygium incisum, Caulophullum robustum., Ginkgo biloba, Evolving Factor Analysis, Window Factor Analysis, Alternative Moving Window Factor Analysis, Orthogonal Projection Approach, Fuzzy Clustering, Heuristic Evolving Latent Projection, Gegen Qinlian, Artemisia annua, Isatis indigotica, Ganoderma lucidum, Caulophullum robustum, Angelica acutiloba, Panax notoginseng, Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity