Recent advances in analysis of Chinese medical plants and traditional medicines

Chinese herbal medicine is gaining increasing popularity worldwide for health promotion and adjuvant therapy. Thus, selective and efficient analytical methods are required not only for quality assurance but also for authentication of the plant material. Applications of both chromatographic and electrophoretic techniques to the analysis of medicinal plants and Chinese traditional medicine preparations over the last 3 years are outlined in this review. The role of chemical fingerprinting is highlighted and a brief survey of determination of toxic components, natural and synthetic adulterants is also included. Moreover, different sample pretreatment and extraction methods are discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.