Research progress on standardization study of NIR spectroscopy based method for quality control of traditional Chinese medicine

Abstract

In recent years, the near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has gained wide acceptance within the quantitative analysis of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). However, the lack of technical standards is the bottleneck problem in this process. To address this issue, standardization study of the NIR spectroscopy based method for the quantitative analysis of TCM is needed, in which the specific characteristics of TCM should be given full considerations. The main research contents include:the scope definition for the application of NIR spectroscopy in the TCM quantitative analysis field, the selection criteria for the sample pretreatment and spectral acquisition conditions, the rules for the model optimization and evaluation, and the regulations for the model update and transfer. In this paper, some foreign studies in the agricultural areas are reviewed for reference. Different chemometrics methods reported in the literature are investigated and compared systematically. This research is important actual significance to the theoretical development of NIR spectroscopy analytical techniques, and will effectively promote the application of the technology in the TCM industry. Furthermore, it is beneficial to improve the technical level of TCM quality control, and can also be used as references to achieve similar purposes for other natural products.