Identification Markers of Adulteration in Korean Red Ginseng (Panax Ginseng) Products Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS)

Phytochemistry of Red Ginseng, a Steam-Processed Panax ginseng

Asian ginseng, the root of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer, occupies a prominent position in the list of best-selling natural products in the world. There are two major types of ginseng roots: white ginseng and red ginseng, each with numerous preparations. White ginseng is prepared by air-drying fresh Asian ginseng roots after harvest. Red ginseng is prepared by steaming roots in controlled conditions using fresh or raw Asian ginseng. Red ginseng is commonly used in Asian countries due to its unique chemical profile, different therapeutic efficacy, and increased stability. Compared with the widespread research on white ginseng, the study of red ginseng is relatively limited. In this paper, after a botanical feature description, the structures of different types of constituents in red ginseng are systematically described, including naturally occurring compounds and those resulting from the steam processing. In red ginseng phytochemical studies, the number of published reports on ginsenosides is significantly higher than that for other constituents. Up to now, 57 ginsenosides have been isolated and characterized in red ginseng. The structural transformation pathways during steaming have been summarized. In comparison with white ginseng, red ginseng also contains other constituents, including polyacetylenes, Maillard reaction products, other types of glycosides, lignans, amino acids, fatty acids, and polysaccharides, which have also been presented. Appropriate analytical methods are necessary for differentiating between unprocessed white ginseng and processed red ginseng. Specific marker compounds and chemical profiles have been used to discriminate red ginseng from white ginseng and adulterated commercial products. Additionally, a brief phytochemical profile comparison has been made between white ginseng and black ginseng, and the latter is another type of processed ginseng prepared from white or red ginseng by steaming several times. In conclusion, to ensure the safe and effective use of red ginseng, phytochemical and analytical studies of its constituents are necessary and even crucial.

Quality Consistency of Herbal Products: Chemical Evaluation

The widespread utility of herbal products has been rising considerably worldwide, including both developed and developing countries, leading to the rapid growth of their availability in the United States and globally. This substantial increase in consumption of herbal products has witnessed the emergence of adverse effects upon oral administration of certain of these products, and thus has raised safety concerns. The adverse effects caused by the consumption of certain botanical medicines occur primarily as a result of the poor quality of plant raw materials or the finished products, which inherently may affect safety and/or efficacy. The poor quality of some herbal products can be attributed to a lack of proper quality assurance and quality control. A high demand for herbal products that surpasses production, combined with a desire for maximizing profits, along with a lack of rigorous quality control within some manufacturing facilities have led to the emergence of quality inconsistencies. The underlying causes for this involve the misidentification of plant species, or their substitution, adulteration, or contamination with harmful ingredients. Analytical assessments have revealed there to be frequent and significant compositional variations between marketed herbal products. The inconsistency of the quality of herbal products can be ascribed essentially to the inconsistency of the botanical raw material quality used to manufacture the products. Thus, the quality assurance and the quality control of the botanical raw materials is may contribute significantly to improving the quality and consistency of the quality of the end products. The current chapter focuses on the chemical evaluation of quality and consistency of herbal products, including botanical dietary supplements. Different techniques, instruments, applications, and methods used in identifying, quantifying, and generating chemical fingerprints and chemical profiles of the ingredients of the herbal products will be described. The strengths and weaknesses of the various techniques available will be addressed. Limitations of the other approaches including morphological or microscopic analysis and DNA-based analysis will be presented.

Authentication of Herbal Medicines Based on Modern Analytical Technology Combined with Chemometrics Approach: A Review

Since ancient times, herbal medicines (HMs) have been widely popular with consumers as a "natural" drug for health care and disease treatment. With the emergence of problems, such as increasing demand for HMs and shortage of resources, it often occurs the phenomenon of shoddy exceed and mixing the false with the genuine in the market. There is an urgent need to evaluate the quality of HMs to ensure their important role in health care and disease treatment, and to reduce the possibility of threat to human health. Modern analytical technology is can be analyzed for analyzing chemical components of HMs or their preparations. Reflecting complex chemical components' characteristic curves in the analysis sample, and the comprehensive effect of active ingredients of HMs. In this review, modern analytical technology (chromatography, spectroscopy, mass spectrometry), chemometrics methods (unsupervised, supervised) and their advantages, disadvantages, and applicability were introduced and summarized. In addition, the authentication application of modern analytical technology combined with chemometrics methods in four aspects, including origin, processing methods, cultivation methods, and adulteration of HMs have also been discussed and illustrated by a few typical studies. This article offers a general workflow of analytical methods that have been applied for HMs authentication and explains that the accuracy of authentication in favor of the quality assurance of HMs. It was provided reference value for the development and application of modern HMs.

Chemical Authentication of Botanical Ingredients: A Review of Commercial Herbal Products

Chemical methods are the most important and widely used traditional plant identification techniques recommended by national and international pharmacopoeias. We have reviewed the successful use of different chemical methods for the botanical authentication of 2,386 commercial herbal products, sold in 37 countries spread over six continents. The majority of the analyzed products were reported to be authentic (73%) but more than a quarter proved to be adulterated (27%). At a national level, the number of products and the adulteration proportions varied very widely. Yet, the adulteration reported for the four countries, from which more than 100 commercial products were purchased and their botanical ingredients chemically authenticated, was 37% (United Kingdom), 31% (Italy), 27% (United States), and 21% (China). Simple or hyphenated chemical analytical techniques have identified the total absence of labeled botanical ingredients, substitution with closely related or unrelated species, the use of biological filler material, and the hidden presence of regulated, forbidden or allergenic species. Additionally, affecting the safety and efficacy of the commercial herbal products, other low quality aspects were reported: considerable variability of the labeled metabolic profile and/or phytochemical content, significant product-to-product variation of botanical ingredients or even between batches by the same manufacturer, and misleading quality and quantity label claims. Choosing an appropriate chemical technique can be the only possibility for assessing the botanical authenticity of samples which have lost their diagnostic microscopic characteristics or were processed so that DNA cannot be adequately recovered.

Fraud Detection of Herbal Medicines Based on Modern Analytical Technologies Combine with Chemometrics Approach: A Review

Fraud in herbal medicines (HMs), commonplace throughout human history, is significantly related to medicinal effects with sometimes lethal consequences. Major HMs fraud events seem to occur with a certain regularity, such as substitution by counterfeits, adulteration by addition of inferior production-own materials, adulteration by chemical compounds, and adulteration by addition of foreign matter. The assessment of HMs fraud is in urgent demand to guarantee consumer protection against the four fraudulent activities. In this review, three analysis platforms (targeted, non-targeted, and the combination of non-targeted and targeted analysis) were introduced and summarized. Furthermore, the integration of analysis technology and chemometrics method (e.g., class-modeling, discrimination, and regression method) have also been discussed. Each integration shows different applicability depending on their advantages, drawbacks, and some factors, such as the explicit objective analysis or the nature of four types of HMs fraud. In an attempt to better solve four typical HMs fraud, appropriate analytical strategies are advised and illustrated with several typical studies. The article provides a general workflow of analysis methods that have been used for detection of HMs fraud. All analysis technologies and chemometrics methods applied can conduce to excellent reference value for further exploration of analysis methods in HMs fraud.

A Review of Authenticity and Authentication of Commercial Ginseng Herbal Medicines and Food Supplements

Ginseng traditional medicines and food supplements are the globally top selling herbal products. Panax ginseng, Panax quinquefolius and Panax notoginseng are the main commercial ginseng species in herbal medicine. Prices of ginseng products vary widely based on the species, quality, and purity of the used ginseng, and this provides a strong driver for intentional adulteration. Our systematic literature search has reviewed the authenticity results of 507 ginseng-containing commercial herbal products sold in 12 countries scattered across six continents. The analysis of the botanical and chemical identity of all these products shows that 76% are authentic while 24% were reported as adulterated. The number of commercial products as well as the percentage of adulteration varies significantly between continents, being highest in South America (100%) and Australia (75%), and lower in Europe (35%), North America (23%), Asia (21%) and Africa (0%). At a national level, from the five countries for which more than 10 products have been successfully authenticated, the highest percentage of adulterated ginseng products were purchased from Taiwan (49%), followed by Italy (37%), China (21%), and USA (12%), while all products bought in South Korea were reported to be authentic. In most cases, labeled Panax species were substituted with other Panax species, but substitution of ginseng root, the medicinally recommended plant part, with leaves, stems or flowers was also reported. Efficient and practical authentication using biomarkers to distinguish the main ginseng varieties and secondary metabolite spectra for age determination are essential to combat adulteration in the global marketplace.

Application of Identification and Evaluation Techniques for Ethnobotanical Medicinal Plant of Genus Panax: A Review

Genus Panax, as worldwide medicinal plants, has a medical history for thousands of years. Most of the entire genus are traditional ethnobotanical medicine in China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, which have given rise to international attention and use. This paper reviewed more than 210 articles and related books on the research of Panax medicinal plants and their Chinese patent medicines published in the last 30 years. The purpose was to review and summarize the species classification, geographical distribution, and ethnic minorities medicinal records of the genus Panax, and further to review the analytical tools and data analysis methods for the authentication and quality assessment of Panax medicinal materials and Chinese patent medicines. Five main technologies applied in the identification and evaluation of Panax have been introduced and summarized. Chromatography was the most widely used one. Further research and development of molecular identification technology had the potential to become a mainstream identification technology. In addition, some novel, controversial, and worthy methods including electronic noses, electronic eyes, and DNA barcoding were also introduced. At the same time, more than 80% of the researches were carried out by a combination of chemometric pattern-recognition technologies and multi-analysis technologies. All the technologies and methods applied can provide strong support and guarantee for the identification and evaluation of genus Panax, and also conduce to excellent reference value for the development and in-depth research of new technologies in Panax.