HPTLC-MS: an advance approach in herbal drugs using fingerprint spectra and mass spectroscopy

Abstract

High-performance thin-layer chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPTLC-MS) is one of the most modern hyphenated analytical methods available today. HPTLC-MS has recently been used to perform extensive analytical work using advanced features and still more analyses are in progress using these advanced features. Herbal medicines contain a wide range of bioactives that require proper identification for the activity and quality control. Recently, herbal medicine identification and quality control have become increasingly popular using high-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The aim of this paper is to provide a brief overview of recent method developments in analysis, 15 most significant herbal drug applications with their chromatographic conditions, pharmacological actions, and solvents used in the present paper. An extensive literature search was performed incorporating several databases, notably, Web of Knowledge, PubMed and Google Scholar, and other relevant published materials. In previous research, HPTLC and its hyphenation with MS allowed for quantification of analytes in complex matrixes at nanogram and picogram concentrations. Quantifying a wide variety of analytes using these techniques has been extremely accurate, selective, and sensitive. Throughout this review, the HPTLC-MS technique is discussed in relation to the quality control of herbal drugs. Hence, 15 herbal drugs were identified based on their RF values and m/z ratio by mass spectrometry by HPTLC-MS for the first time. In this compilation, researchers can gain insights into HPTLC-MS techniques for resolving quality control issues with herbal drugs using their fingerprint spectra. Besides, the application of HPTLC-MS methods could to be sufficiently precise and reproducible for established conditions and after validation may be used for routine quality control of herbal drugs/formulations in herbal industries.