Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) as a Tool to Analyze Phenolic Compounds in Plants

Phenolics are related to a number of pharmacological effects and form an important category among secondary plant metabolites. For many years well established and highly efficient methods such as UV spectroscopy, high performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry and capillary electrophoresis have been used for determination. In the last years, near infrared spectroscopy with its benefits such as being noninvasive, rapid, almost no necessary sample preparation, on-/inline measurements, being able to determine physical and chemical parameters simultaneously, became a widely used analytical technique in phyto-analytics and is included in pharmacopeias to an increasing extent [1]. This manuscript reviews recent applications of NIRS in the analysis of phenolic compounds in plant material.