Application Of NMR Based Metabolomics and Multivariate Data Analysis For Quality Control of Herbal Material

Abstract

Despite of lack of solid scientific proof for its efficacy and safety, up to now herbal medicines are widely used both in developed and developing countries. Standardization by focusing on active constituents or marker compounds is important but sometimes it is not sufficient to guarantee the quality of herbal preparations. NMR based metabolomics is a reliable tool to provide a wealth of information concerning plant metabolites since it is able to comprehensively detect a diverse groups of plant metabolite in a single run. In combination with multivariate data analysis, the obtained NMR data can be applied to determine any adulterants or substitutes in commercial herbal preparation which cannot be detected by other chromatographic methods. Here we reviewed three projects of our lab in Leiden, focusing on the application of NMR based metabolomics and multivariate data analysis, particularly principal component analysis for quality control of herbal medicines