Techniques for biological fingerprinting of traditional Chinese medicine

Abstract

The pharmacology of traditional Chinese medicine remains poorly understood. However, there remain concerns over a number of potentially toxic plants, animal parts, and mineral Chinese medicines. Traditional fingerprinting strategy could not meet the new requirements in the field. The past decade has witnessed remarkable advances in this area. Great attention has been given to biological fingerprinting techniques, which have been developed and used in the modern research of traditional Chinese medicine. These techniques are robust, have high throughput, and are cost-effective in understanding the pharmacology of traditional Chinese medicine. In this review, we present an overview of the recent progress in biological fingerprinting of traditional Chinese medicine. Remarkably, characteristic features of biological fingerprinting techniques are described by comparing with conventional strategy, keeping in mind the current opportunities and challenges in this field.