The truth behind herbal products: how HPTLC can help herbal industry detect adulteration?

Adulteration of herbal drugs, ingredients and products is a growing concern of industry, regulators and consumers worldwide. The last few years have seen an increase in negative press reports targeting the herbal industry. A famous example was the 2015 case of the New York State Attorney General who launched his own investigation of the quality of herbal products sold as dietary supplements. Although the validity of the study was questioned, such case raised several discussions regarding conformity of herbal ingredients and products with specifications and the issue of adulteration.

Our group has participated in several market surveys looking at black cohosh, ginkgo, St. John’s wort, milk thistle and echinacea products by HPTLC [1], [2], [3]. In most of these cases, we found a significant number of samples either adulterated or not in full compliance with their labels.

This presentation will illustrate the role of HPTLC in ensuring quality herbal drugs, ingredients and products in a simple and pragmatic way. HPTLC is not only an identity tool, but also is used to determine purity and potency of the investigated material. The concept of “comprehensive HPTLC fingerprinting” combines visual image data and quantitative information that becomes available, when such data are converted into peak profiles. This information comes at no extra cost.

• References

• 1 Frommenwiler DA, Sudberg S, Sharaf MHM, Bzhelyansky A, Lucas B, Reich E. St. John’s wort versus counterfeit St. John’s wort: An HPTLC study. J AOAC Int 2016; 99: 1204-12 .
• 2 Booker A, Frommenwiler DA, Reich E, Horsfield S, Heinrich M. Adulteration and poor quality of Ginkgo biloba supplements. J Herb Med 2016; 6: 79-87 .
• 3 Frommenwiler DA, Booker A, Vila R, Heinrich M, Reich E, Cañigueral S. Comprehensive HPTLC fingerprinting as a tool for a simplified analysis of purity of ginkgo products. J Ethnopharmacol 2019; 243: 112084 .