Micellar electrokinetic chromatography of the constituents in Philippine lagundi (Vitex negundo) herbal products

Spice and Herb Frauds: Types, Incidence, and Detection: The State of the Art

There is a necessity to protect the quality and authenticity of herbs and spices because of the increase in the fraud and adulteration incidence during the last 30 years. There are several aspects that make herbs and spices quite vulnerable to fraud and adulteration, including their positive and desirable sensorial and health-related properties, the form in which they are sold, which is mostly powdered, and their economic relevance around the world, even in developing countries. For these reasons, sensitive, rapid, and reliable techniques are needed to verify the authenticity of these agri-food products and implement effective adulteration prevention measures. This review highlights why spices and herbs are highly valued ingredients, their economic importance, and the official quality schemes to protect their quality and authenticity. In addition to this, the type of frauds that can take place with spices and herbs have been disclosed, and the fraud incidence and an overview of scientific articles related to fraud and adulteration based on the Rapid Alert System Feed and Food (RASFF) and the Web of Science databases, respectively, during the last 30 years, is carried out here. Next, the methods used to detect adulterants in spices and herbs are reviewed, with DNA-based techniques and mainly spectroscopy and image analysis methods being the most recommended. Finally, the available adulteration prevention measurements for spices and herbs are presented, and future perspectives are also discussed.

Pressurized Hot Water Extraction and Capillary Electrophoresis for Green and Fast Analysis of Useful Metabolites in Plants

The search for useful compounds from plants is an important research area. Traditional screening that involves isolation and identification/quantitation is tedious, time consuming, and generates a significant amount of chemical waste. Here, we present a simple, fast, and green strategy to assess ≥0.1% wt/wt quantities of useful compounds in plants/spices using pressurized hot water extraction using a household espresso machine followed by chemical analysis using capillary electrophoresis. Three demonstrations with polygodial, cinnamaldehyde, coumarin, and shikimic acid as target metabolites are shown. Direct analysis of extracts was by the developed micellar electrokinetic chromatography and capillary zone electrophoresis methods. The approach, which can be implemented in less developed countries, can process many samples within a day, much faster than traditional techniques that would normally take at least a day. Finally, 0.8–1.1% wt/wt levels of shikimic acid were found in Tasmanian-pepperberry and Tasmanian-fuschia leaves via the approach.

Micellar electrokinetic chromatography fingerprinting combined with chemometrics as an efficient strategy for evaluating the quality consistency and predicting the antioxidant activity of Lianqiao Baidu pills

An approach combining micellar electrokinetic chromatography fingerprinting with chemometrics was developed to evaluate the quality consistency of Lianqiao Baidu pills, which are traditional Chinese patent medicines composed of 19 herbs used mainly to treat skin ulcers, common cold, rheumatism, herpes, and constipation. The triangle optimization method was employed to choose a satisfactory background electrolyte, with the information index, I, as an objective function for assessing the capillary electrophoresis conditions. Then, under the optimal conditions, the micellar electrokinetic chromatography fingerprints of 28 batches of samples were established, and five marker compounds were quantitatively determined simultaneously. A limited-ratio quantified fingerprint method was introduced to evaluate the chromatographic fingerprints both qualitatively and quantitatively. Principle component analysis revealed that the 28 batches of samples can be clustered according to different manufacturers. Moreover, the relationship between the fingerprint and the antioxidant activity was explored by orthogonal partial least-squares regression, which provided critical medicinal efficacy information for quality control. The present study establishes a powerful and reliable method for monitoring the quality consistency of Lianqiao Baidu pill.