Fingerprints of Medicinal Plants

Abstract

Medicinal plants are considered a rich source of phytochemicals, which can be used in drug development. For this purpose, the selection of correctly identified herbs is of significance as each herb has a unique phytochemical distribution pattern. High-Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) is one of the simplest yet robust techniques for the identification of herbs, as it can provide unique phytochemical fingerprints for each herb. However, process parameters of generating HPTLC fingerprints require rigorous optimization for each plant. This chapter provides HPTLC fingerprints for 108 medicinal plants together with their botanical name and common Hindi names. Besides providing optimized HPTLC conditions for generating these unique 108 fingerprints, this book also offers a list of solvent systems and derivatizing reagents for screening of phytochemicals. With classical taxonomical features and HPTLC fingerprinting methodology compiled, this chapter aims to serve as a guide for the identity verification of medicinal plants.

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