Planta Med 2015; 81 - PW_219
DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1565843

UV spectroscopy and chemometrics: A simple approach to herbal quality control

SH El-Ahmady 1, HA Gad 1, MM Al-Azizi 1
  • 1Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Recently, the application of multivariate analyses to spectroscopic and chromatographic data has been widely used in the quality control of herbal medicine [1]. In this sense, the work presented describes a simple technique developed using UV spectroscopy together with chemometric techniques of hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) in herbal authentication. This model was successfully used to authenticate Thymus vulgaris and discriminate it from Thymus, Satureja, Origanum, Plectranthus and Eriocephalus species, all traded in the Egyptian market as different types of thyme [2]. The model was also applied to authenticate 25 samples of monofloral Yemeni Sidr honey; one of the most expensive honey types worldwide and extensively adulterated [3]. In the former case, the model was constructed using UV spectroscopic data from methanolic extracts of 30 samples of T. vulgaris. PCA and HCA discriminated 20 samples of different botanical origins while 12 samples of commercial thyme were segregated into thyme or non-thyme using SIMCA. In case of the Sidr honey study, HCA and PCA achieved segregation of the genuine Sidr samples from the lower priced local polyfloral and non-Sidr samples. The SIMCA model was used to identify genuine Sidr honey samples as well as detect admixture with lower priced polyfloral honey by detection limits > 10%.

References:

[1] Gad HA, El-Ahmady SH, Abou-Shoer MI, Al-Azizi MM. Application of Chemometrics in Authentication of Herbal Medicines: A Review. Phytochem Anal 2013; 24: 1 – 24

[2] Gad HA, El-Ahmady SH, Abou-Shoer MI, Al-Azizi MM. A modern approach to the authentication and quality assessment of thyme using UV Spectroscopy and chemometric analysis. Phytochem Anal 2013; 24: 520 – 552

[3] Roshan A, Gad H, El-Ahmady S, Khanbash M, Abou-Shoer M, Al-Azizi M. A new approach to the authentication of Yemeni Sidr Honey. J Agric Food Chem 2013; 61: 7722 – 7729