Herbal Medicine Characterization Perspectives Using Advanced FTIR Sample Techniques - Diffuse Reflectance (DRIFT) and Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (PAS)

Agnese Brangule; Renāte Šukele; Dace Bandere

doi:10.3389/fpls.2020.00356

Herbal Medicine Characterization Perspectives Using Advanced FTIR Sample Techniques - Diffuse Reflectance (DRIFT) and Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (PAS)

Front Plant Sci. 2020 Apr 17:11:356. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.00356. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Agnese Brangule¹, Renāte Šukele², Dace Bandere²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Human Physiology and Biochemistry, Riga Stradiņš, University, Riga, Latvia.
² Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Riga Stradiņš, University, Riga, Latvia.

Abstract

This study demonstrates the significant potential of the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) sampling methods: cantilever-enhanced Fourier transform infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy (FTIR PAS) and diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy (FTIR DRIFT) in the field of herbal medicines (HM). In the present work we investigated DRIFT and PAS sampling methods because they do not require sample preparation, samples may be opaque or dark, require small amounts, both liquid and solid samples can be measured, and solid samples can be analyzed on a small scale. Experiments conducted prove high sensitivity, reproducibility and capability in combination with an unsupervised multivariate analysis technique to discriminate important characteristics of HM, such as the identification of plant parts, differentiation of samples by types, and determination of the concentration of extractable compounds in HM.

Keywords: FTIR DRIFT; FTIR PAS; cluster analysis; herbal differentiation; herbal medicines.