Recent Developments in Chromatographic Fingerprints from Herbal Products: Set-Up and Data Analysis

The use of chromatographic fingerprints from herbal products where the whole chromatographic profile is applied, is an approach to evaluate the quality of the investigated product. In this paper, recent developments in the set-up and data analysis of chromatographic fingerprints for herbal products are discussed. First, different set-ups for fingerprint development are reviewed. Prior to the fingerprint development, a suitable sample preparation, e.g. extraction, should be considered. In a second instance, this review focuses on the data analysis with regards to the different fingerprint applications. Usually, chemometric data pretreatment is necessary. This is discussed first, followed by a short overview of the data handling techniques used in the two main application areas of herbal fingerprints, i.e. quality assurance and classification or calibration. The quality assurance, involving identification and quality control of the herbal products, is reviewed, followed by the use of fingerprints in classification or modelling. The different application areas are illustrated and discussed with several case studies.