Isolation and HPTLC Analysis of Iridoids in Premna integrifolia,an Important Ingredient of Ayurvedic Drug Dashmool

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - Premna integrifolia is an important constituent of the famous herbal formulation “Dashmool” of the Indian Ayurvedic...     

Simultaneous Estimation of Kaempferol,Rutin, and Quercetin in Various Plant Products and Different Dosage Forms of Bhuiamla and Amla

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - Standardization has become mandatory for global acceptance of herbal oriental medicines which lack validated methods of analysis...     

A Rapid HPTLC Method for Standardization of Ficus bengalensis Linn.

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - Because of the increasing importance of Ficus bengalensis as a potent antidiabetic herbal drug, detailed chemical and analytical...     

Forced degradation studies of mangiferin and berberine by high-performance thin-layer chromatography

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - Since ancient times, herbal drugs have been used by different cultures throughout the world to treat illness. With the upgrading of...     

Analytical Study of Extracts of St John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum), Evaluation of HPTLC Plates by Multivariate Data Analysis

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - HPTLC with multivariate data analysis has been used as a new means of evaluating the quality of herbal extracts. Spectral data from...     

A comprehensive library‐based,automated screening procedure for 46 synthetic cannabinoids in serum employing liquid chromatography‐quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometry with high‐temperature electrospray ionization

Considering the vast variety of synthetic cannabinoids and herbal mixtures – commonly known as ‘Spice’ or ‘K2’ – on the market and the resulting increase of severe intoxications related to their consumption, there is a need in clinical and forensic toxicology for comprehensive up‐to‐date screening methods. The focus of this project aimed at developing and implementing an automated screening procedure for the detection of synthetic cannabinoids in serum using a liquid chromatography‐ion trap‐MS (LC‐MSⁿ) system and a spectra library‐based approach, currently including 46 synthetic cannabinoids and 8 isotope labelled analogues. In the process of method development, a high‐temperature ESI source (IonBooster^TM, Bruker Daltonik) and its effects on the ionization efficiency of the investigated synthetic cannabinoids were evaluated and compared to a conventional ESI source. Despite their structural diversity, all investigated synthetic cannabinoids benefitted from high‐temperature ionization by showing remarkably higher MS intensities compared to conventional ESI. The employed search algorithm matches retention time, MS and MS²/MS³ spectra. With the utilization of the ionBooster source, limits for the automated detection comparable to cut‐off values of routine MRM methods were achieved for the majority of analytes. Even compounds not identified when using a conventional ESI source were detected using the ionBooster‐source. LODs in serum range from 0.1 ng/ml to 0.5 ng/ml. The use of parent compounds as analytical targets offers the possibility of instantly adding new emerging compounds to the library and immediately applying the updated method to serum samples, allowing the rapid adaptation of the screening method to ongoing forensic or clinical requirements. The presented approach can also be applied to other specimens, such as oral fluid or hair, and herbal mixtures and was successfully applied to authentic serum samples. Quantitative MRM results of samples with analyte concentrations above the determined LOD were confirmed as positive findings by the presented method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Herbal medicine in healthcare--an overview

It is generally accepted by all concerned that modern pharmaceuticals will remain out of reach of many people and 'health for all' may only be realized by the use of adequately assessed herbal products. Mankind has been using herbal medicine for healing right from the beginning of human civilization. With the advent of 'modern medicine' herbal products have been looked down upon, especially by western societies. Yet, in recent times, use of herbal medicine for heathcare has increased steadily all over the world. However, serious concerns are being realized regarding the safety, claimed efficacy and quality of herbal products used as herbal medicine, nutraceuticals, health food and cosmetics. Although herbal products are generally considered safe due to their age-old usage, significant side effects have been reported for many herbal products, including herbal medicine. Accidental contamination and intentional adulteration are considered as primary reasons for the side effects. The historical perspective and the philosophy of herbal medical practice along with its present status in the light of present day science have been reviewed and included in the present article. Assurance of safety by identification of contaminants and assessment of toxicity has been outlined. Assessment of claimed efficacy of herbal medicine is difficult due to its holistic approach. Practical ways of assessing efficacy of herbal medicine by adapting the methodologies used for modern pharmaceutical are described. The maintenance of standard of herbal medicine has been stressed and pragmatic approaches of assuring quality of herbal medicine by using modern tools of fingerprinting the chemical profile of herbal medicine are discussed. As much of the traditional herbal medical knowledge is scattered around the world at the family and community levels, and more so in the indigeneous people, the knowledge base is continuously being lost and so needs immediate documentation. Difficulties in documentation due to concerns of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) have been highlighted.     

Secoiridoid Sulfonates from the Sulfiting‐Processed Buds of Lonicera japonica

The new secoiridoid sulfonates 1 – 3 were isolated from the 50% EtOH/H₂O extract of the sulfiting‐processed Lonicera japonica Flos (LJF) by semi‐prep. HPLC, and their structures were identified on the basis of mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. HPLC and LC‐DAD‐MS/MS analyses of the different samples of LJF obtained by various process techniques suggested that the sulfur fumigation led to the decrease of secologanic acid ( 4 ) and the formation of secologanic acid‐derived sulfonate 1 and its derivatives 2, 2a , and 3 in the crude materials, which revealed that sulfur fumigation, the traditional process technique, could alter the phytochemical profiles of some Chinese herbal medicines.     

计算机技术在中药饮片斗谱编排的应用

介绍了医院药剂科计算机管理系统技术在中药饮片斗谱编排的应用。通过该系统提供的中药饮片使用频率排序的数据,对中药饮片斗谱进行编排。结果表明,通过计算机技术编排中药饮片斗谱,大大减轻了调配人员的劳动强度,从而提高了工作效率。利用计算机技术编排中药饮片斗谱更科学、方便、快捷。     

Recent Analytical Method for Detection of Chemical Adulterants in Herbal Medicine

Herbal medicine has become popular in recent years as an alternative medicine. The problem arises when herbal medicines contain an undeclared synthetic drug that is illegally added, since it is a natural product that does not contain any chemical drugs due to the potential cause of harmful effects. Supervision of herbal medicines is important to ensure that these herbal medicines are still safe to use. Thus, developing a reliable analytical technique for the determination of adulterated drugs in herbal medicine is gaining interest. This review aims to provide a recent analytical method that has been used within the past 5 years (2016–2021) for the determination of chemical adulterants in herbal medicine.     

Chip-based high-throughput screening of herbal medicines

At present, high-throughput screening (HTS) programs in drug discovery rely mainly on compound libraries from combinational chemistry. Similarly, natural flora has been used as a prominent origin for new and potent herbal drugs. Herbal medicines have been used worldwide for thousands of years to cure many diseases. As such, herbal secondary metabolites show a remarkable structural diversity that supplements chemically synthesized compound analogs in drug discovery screening. Unfortunately, there is often a considerable deterioration in the quality of herbal drugs in such screening programs as there are time-consuming manual processes involved in the isolation of active ingredients from the highly complex mixtures of herbal plant products. The quality and quantity of herbal samples are critical for the success of HTS programs. In the recent past, there have been substantial improvements in HTS due to the miniaturization and integration of microchip (e.g., Herbochip(?), DNA chip, protein chip, cell chip, etc.)-based technologies so as to design herbal drugs that compete with synthetic drug analogs. Here we will review various technologies used for HTS of herbal medicines. Finally, we will summarize our efforts to develop a novel chip-based HTS assay to explore the antioxidant and radioprotective properties of herbal plants.     

Simultaneous determination of ten flavonoids of crude and wine‐processed Radix Scutellariae aqueous extracts in rat plasma by UPLC‐ESI‐MS/MS and its application to a comparative pharmacokinetic study

Radix Scutellariae (RS) is a herbal medicine with various pharmacological activities to treat inflammation, respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, etc. In this study, a rapid, sensitive and selective UPLC‐ESI‐MS/MS method was developed for simultaneous determination of 10 flavonoids – scutellarin, scutellarein, chrysin, wogonin, baicalein, apigenin, wogonoside, oroxylin A‐7‐O‐glucuronide, oroxylin A and baicalin – from RS aqueous extracts in rat plasma with propyl paraben as internal standard (IS). Chromatographic separation was achieved on a C₁₈ column using gradient elution with the mobile phase consisting of methanol and water (containing 0.1% formic acid) at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. The detection was performed in multiple reaction monitoring mode using electrospray ionization in negative mode. The validated method showed good linearity over a wide concentration range (r >0.9935). The intra‐ and interday assay variabilities were <9.5% and <12.4% for all analytes, respectively. The extraction recovery ranged from 71.2 to 89.7% for each analyte and IS. This method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic comparision after oral administration of crude and wine‐processed RS aqueous extracts. There were significant differences in some pharmacokinetic parameters of most analytes between crude and wine‐processed RS. This suggested that wine‐processing exerted effects absorption of most flavonoids. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Subcritical Water Extraction of Salvia miltiorrhiza

In this work, a green extraction technique, subcritical water extraction (SBWE), was employed to extract active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from an important Chinese medicinal herb, Salvia miltiorrhiza (danshen), at various temperatures. The APIs included tanshinone I, tanshinone IIA, protocatechualdehyde, caffeic acid, and ferulic acid. Traditional herbal decoction (THD) of Salvia miltiorrhiza was also carried out for comparison purposes. Reproduction assay of herbal extracts obtained by both SBWE and THD were then conducted on Caenorhabditis elegans so that SBWE conditions could be optimized for the purpose of developing efficacious herbal medicine from Salvia miltiorrhiza. The extraction efficiency was mostly enhanced with increasing extraction temperature. The quantity of tanshinone I in the herbal extract obtained by SBWE at 150 °C was 370-fold higher than that achieved by THD extraction. Reproduction evaluation revealed that the worm reproduction rate decreased and the reproduction inhibition rate increased with elevated SBWE temperatures. Most importantly, the reproduction inhibition rate of the SBWE herbal extracts obtained at all four temperatures investigated was higher than that of traditional herbal decoction extracts. The results of this work show that there are several benefits of subcritical water extraction of medicinal herbs over other existing herbal medicine preparation techniques. Compared to THD, the thousand-year-old and yet still popular herbal preparation method used in herbal medicine, subcritical water extraction is conducted in a closed system where no loss of volatile active pharmaceutical ingredients occurs, although analyte degradation may happen at higher temperatures. Temperature optimization in SBWE makes it possible to be more efficient in extracting APIs from medicinal herbs than the THD method. Compared to other industrial processes of producing herbal medicine, subcritical water extraction eliminates toxic organic solvents. Thus, subcritical water extraction is not only environmentally friendly but also produces safer herbal medicine for patients.     

Identification and structural characterization of the synthetic cannabinoid 3‐(1‐adamantoyl)‐1‐pentylindole as an additive in ‘herbal incense’

Since the end of 2010, more than 20 synthetic cannabimimetics have been identified in ‘Spice’ products, demonstrating the enormous dynamic in this field. In an effort to cope with the problem, many countries have already undertaken legal measures by putting some of these compounds under control. Nevertheless, once a number of compounds were scheduled, they were soon replaced by other synthetic cannabinoids. In this article, we report the identification of a new – and due to its substitution pattern rather uncommon – cannabimimetic found in several ‘herbal incense’ products. The GC–EI mass spectrum first led to misidentification as the alpha‐methyl‐derivative of JWH‐250. However, since both substances show different retention indices, thin‐layer chromatography was used to isolate the unknown compound. After application of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, high‐resolution MS and GC–MS/MS techniques, the compound was identified as 3‐(1‐adamantoyl)‐1‐pentylindole, a derivative of JWH‐018 carrying an adamantoyl moiety instead of a naphthoyl group. This finding supports that the listing of synthetic cannabinoids as prohibited substances triggers the appearance of compounds with uncommon substituents. Moreover, it emphasizes the necessity of being aware of the risk of misidentification when using techniques sometimes providing only limited structural information like GC–MS. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chromatographic separation techniques and data handling methods for herbal fingerprints: a review

As herbal medicines have an important position in health care systems worldwide, their current assessment and quality control are a major bottleneck. Over the past decade, major steps were taken not only to improve the quality of the herbal products but also to develop analytical methods ensuring their quality. Nowadays, chromatographic fingerprinting is the generally accepted technique for the assessment and quality control of herbal products. This paper briefly considers the evolution of the regulations and guidelines on the quality control of herbal medicines, and reviews the established analytical techniques for herbal fingerprinting with an emphasis on the most recent developments, such as miniaturized techniques, new stationary phases, analysis at high temperatures and multi-dimensional chromatography. Accessory to the new analytical techniques, the chemometric data handling techniques applied are discussed. Chemometrics provide scientists with useful tools in understanding the huge amounts of data generated by the analytical advances and prove to be valuable for quality control, classification and modelling of, and discrimination between herbal fingerprints.     

通草类中药微量元素的主成分分析和聚类分析

探讨通草类中药材中微量元素含量与其功效间的相关性。以微量元素含量为指标,运用主成分分析和聚类分析对11种通草类中药的微量元素进行分析。主成分分析结果表明前3个主因子含有通草类中药材微量元素含量84.50%的信息。利用3个主因子模型和聚类分析谱图,解释了11种通草类中药中药的相似性与差异。利用主成分分析和聚类分析法初步得出11种通草类中药的微量元素与其功效存在相关性,为该类中草药的开发利用提供了科学依据和理论基础。     

Mass Spectrometric Identification of Multihydroxy Phenolic Compounds in Tibetan Herbal Medicines

A highly selective and accurate method based on derivatization with dansyl chloride coupled with liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry has been developed for identification of natural pharmacologically active phenolic compounds in extracts of Lomatogonium rotatum plants (Tibetan herbal medicine) obtained by solid-phase extraction. The number of hydroxyl groups on the dansylated phenols was estimated by LC–MS–MS analysis in positive-ion mode. Dansyl derivatization of the compounds introduced basic secondary nitrogen into the phenolic core structures and this was readily ionized when acidic HPLC mobile phases were used. MS fragmentation of the derivatives generated intense protonated molecular ions of m/z [MH]⁺ (phenol aglycones were transformed into the corresponding free phenols by cleavage of an aglycone bond). Collision-induced dissociation of the protonated molecule generated characteristic product ions of m/z 234 and 171 corresponding to the protonated 5-(dimethylamino)naphthalene sulfoxide and 5-(dimethylamino)naphthalene moieties, respectively. Selected reaction monitoring based on the m/z [MH]⁺ to 234 and 171 transitions was highly specific for these phenolic compounds. Characteristic ions with m/z values of [MH – 234]⁺, [MH – 2 × 234]⁺, and [MH – 3 × 234]⁺ were of great importance for estimation of the presence of multihydroxyl groups on the phenolic backbone.     

Development of a sequential injection analysis system for the potentiometric determination of nitrite in meat products by using a Gran’s plot method

A method was developed for in vitro dissolution and ICP-AES based determination of cadmium (Cd) for evaluating its bioaccessibility in herbal medicines to investigate the utility of this test for toxicological assessments. The bioaccessible Cd content of five commonly consumed and Cd-accumulating herbal medicines was determined by in vitro dissolution test with a biorelevant medium simulating gastric conditions. Cd levels were determined by a validated ICP-AES method. In all 5 herbal medicines, the total amount of Cd in herbal medicines was not proportional to the bioaccessible Cd content, which varied from 23.0% to 54.9%. The Cd tolerance limit was exceeded by four of the five herbal medicines in terms of total Cd content, but by only one of these in terms of bioaccessible Cd content. Assessments based on total content may overestimate the risk of Cd toxicity from herbal medicines. Assessing bioaccessibility by in vitro dissolution test coupled with ICP-AES method may be a more appropriate means of determining the safety of herbal medicines containing Cd.