HPTLC for Quality Control of Traditional Chinese Medicines: Identification and Detection of Adulteration

Abstract

For cGMP compliance of dietary supplements and quality control of herbal medicinal products, proper identification of herbal raw material is of great importance. In this respect Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) can present challenging tasks because pharmacopoeial drug monographs may include multiple species and often don't provide sufficient analytical methods. High Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) is a very suitable tool for direct comparison of fingerprints from multiple samples side by side and allows determining similarities and differences of related species. Using “BEIMU” (Fritillaria spp.) and “CANGZHU” (Atractylodes spp.) as examples, the development and use of validated methods for this purpose is illustrated. The traditional approach of associating the quality of an herbal medicine with the quantity of a marker becomes questionable, if the product contains more than one plant material. CANGZHU XIANGLIAN SAN a TCM for veterinary use contains Coptis rhizome, Aucklandia root, and Atractylodes root but the Chinese Veterinary Pharmacopoeia only relies on identification and quantitation of berberin as principal marker. Berberin is present in Coptis only. This creates the possibility for adulterated products, missing either of the other two plants to enter the market. We propose an HPTLC method that allows a more complete monitoring of quality by ensuring the presence of all species in the appropriate quantity.