Application of chemometrics in authentication of herbal medicines: a review

Herbal medicines (HM) and their preparations have been widely used for hundreds of years all over the world. However, they have not been officially recognised due to a lack of adequate or accepted research methodology for their evaluation.

To present a concise overview of the recent applications of chemometrics in solving the ambiguity of herbal medicine authentication during the last two decades.

Studies involving the applications of chemometric analysis in combination with different analytical methods were classified according to the method of analysis used including chromatographic (HPLC, GC and CE), spectroscopic (NMR, IR, UV and ICP) and genetic analysis (RAPD). The purpose of each of these studies was classified into one of three main categories: taxonomic discrimination, quality assessment or classification between plants of different geographic origins.

This review comprises over 150 studies, covering the past two decades, emphasising the significance of chemometric methods in the discrimination of many herbs from closely related species and from adulterants, based on the principal bioactive components and phytochemical diversity. Furthermore, the differentiation between varieties and hybrids was achieved in addition to the prediction of the active components by quantitative methods of analysis. Discrimination according to geographical origin and localities, processing methods, DNA profiling and metabolomics were also efficiently investigated.

Chemometric methods have provided an efficient and powerful tool for the quality control and authentication of different herbs.