FTIR Based Metabolomics Profiling and Fingerprinting of Some Medicinal Plants: An Attempt to Develop an Approach for Quality Control and Standardization of Herbal Materials

Background: The medicinal plants are used for their various therapeutic effects in treatment and prevention of various diseases. Recently herbal medicines are playing an important role in health care across the world. With increased global acceptance of the herbal drugs proper quality control of the herbal medicines have become important to ensure the safety and efficacy of the herbal products. Herbal-based FT-IR metabolomics is a suitable method for quick and reliable quality control and metabolite profiling to ensure quality and reproducibility of herbal medicine. The FT-IR analysis is relatively easy to use, reproducible, non-destructive, and can be used for quick analysis and verification of the herbal medicines. Materials and Methods: In the present work FTIR fingerprint was obtained for extracts and powders of some of the selected medicinal plants. The samples were characterized by using FTIR metabolomics profiling on basis of the diagonostic peaks. Results: Various functional groups, such as phenolics (-OH), carbonyl (C=O), aldehyde (CH=O), ether (C-O-C), aromatic (C=C), and alkyl groups -CH, were identified. Various metabolites e.g. liquiritin, glycyrrhizic acid, glabridin, shogoal, piperine were successfully identified on basis of the diagonostic FTIR peaks. Conclusion: FTIR was found to be a simple, rapid and convenient analytical method and fingerprinting technique for quality control of herbal materials.