HPTLC: Herbal Drugs and Fingerprints

Abstract

HPTLC is used for determining the quality and possible adulteration in herbal raw material and herbal products. HPTLC fingerprints are used by regulatory authorities to compare various samples with standards/reference standard. The recent trends of implementation of quality management policies in pharmaceuticals are to produce best quality of drugs. After using synthetic drugs for some decades with case history of curing some diseases successfully with many side-effects, there is a relook for herbal drugs and their strength for diseases incurable with synthetic drugs. The reliable chromatographic fingerprints are generated through the chromatographic separation of all active components present in the herbal drugs. HPTLC has very powerful separation ability, even for complex chemical components of herbals and products. Complex extracts can be easily separated into relatively simple subfractions, evaluated for stability as well as consistency for composition, even by different manufacturers.