Advances in analytical technologies to evaluate the quality of traditional Chinese medicines

Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) are in widespread use around the world, increasingly so in western nations as the complementary therapy of choice. Nonetheless, quality and safety of TCMs remain key concerns, hindering their wider popularity among the international healthcare fraternity. Cutting-edge analytical technologies are urgently required to address these concerns, ensuring reproducible identification and verification of constituents within any given TCM. Recent improvements in engineering advanced analytical instrumentation with improved sensitivity and precision to allow greater resolution of multi-component mixtures are driving the quality-control standards of TCMs towards universally-acceptable standards. We review recent applications of key analytical techniques in quality assurance and authentication of herbs and their extracts. We highlight the emerging role of chemical fingerprinting of TCMs and the latest regulatory requirements imposed on Chinese herbal medicines utilizing chromatographic fingerprinting