Evaluation of high-performance thin-layer chromatography for the quantification of phenylpropanoids in commercialEchinaceaproducts

Abstract

There is a large chemical variability between commercially available Echinacea for both research and consumption impacts on the quality and efficacy of these products. Globally, herbal industries are largely unregulated, leaving manufacturers responsible for quality control. Several recent efforts to improve regulation have created a need for rapid, accurate, and reliable assays suitable for a quality control setting. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop and validate a high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method for the quantitative analysis of commercial Echinacea products. HPTLC and high-resolution plate imaging were used to separate and quantify the amounts of three phenylpropanoid compounds which were used then as markers in product quality assessment. The developed method was validated according to the current International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines in terms of accuracy, precision, linearity, specificity, limits of quantification and detection, and robustness a...