Botanicals: Methods and Techniques for Quality & Authenticity

The international trade in plants is growing steadily as the worldwide demand for natural and botanical raw materials increases. Customers value natural products and botanicals as green alternatives-safer ingredients for their families which also represent an environmentally and socially responsible choice for the planet. In order to build assurance into the sourcing of natural ingredients, R&D organizations must have valid scientific matrices to authenticate the quality of those ingredients, provide traceability, and minimize risk. An assemblage of insight from expert contributors, Botanicals: Methods and Techniques for Quality & Authenticity compiles a range of methods and techniques that can be used to help guide quality and authenticity determinations.

Topics include:

Metabolic profiling, authentication of botanicals by morphology, and genetic methods of botanical authentication

Tools for building models for the authentication of materials

How multivariate statistics can play a role in determining botanical quality and authenticity

Radiocarbon and stable isotope ratio analysis and emerging stable isotope tools

NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy, NIR (near-infrared), and HPTLC (high-performance thin-layer chromatography) methods for analysis

The use of electronic sensing instruments and applications for analysis

The contributors also discuss the challenge of identifying a botanical extract or preparation on the basis of its chemical content and discuss quality issues faced by botanicals used as cosmetic ingredients. The book provides you with a range of traditional, taxonomic, and newer analytical tools to assure the quality, authenticity, and traceability of botanical raw materials for dietary supplements, cosmetics, and natural products research.