Planta Med 2011; 77 - P_64
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1273593

NMR Profiling for Quality Assessment of Aloe Products

J Zhao 1, TJ Smillie 1, IA Khan 1, 2, 3
  • 1National Center for Natural Products Research, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
  • 2Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
  • 3Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Aloe has been used in folk medicine for thousands of years. Traditionally, it is used for the treatment of constipation, burns, irritation, ulcer and dermatitis [1]. Studies have shown that components of aloe have various biological activities, including anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, wound-healing, immuno-modulating, hypoglycemic, antigastric ulcer and antiviral effects [1, 2]. Adulteration represents a major concern for the aloe products. Aloe polysaccharide is considered to be the bioactive principle in aloe gel. It is a challenge for assessing the quality of aloe gel [3, 4]. The NMR spectrum can provide a wealth of qualitative and quantitative information regarding the components of a mixture. In the present report, we demonstrated the assignments of signals in the NMR spectra of aloe gel and the products to more than 17 individual components. The presence/absence of the assigned characteristic peaks of those components and their intensities can be used as means for quality assessment of aloe gel products.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported in part by „Science Based Authentication of Dietary Supplements“ and „Botanical Dietary Supplement Research“ funded by the Food and Drug Administration grant numbers 5U01FD002071–10 and 1U01FD003871–02, and the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Specific Cooperative Agreement No. 58–6408–2-0009.

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