Infrared spectroscopic techniques for the non-invasive and rapid quality control of Chinese traditional medicine Si-Wu-Tang

摘要

A fast and non-destructive quality control of Si-Wu-Tang (SWT), one of the most used Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) formulae against women's diseases is presented in this article. The authentication method was established using attenuated total reflectance-mid-infrared (ATR-MIR) and near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy in combination with multivariate data analysis (MVA). Measurements were performed applying MIR and NIR bench-top spectrometers. Additionally a laboratory-independent hand-held NIR device was employed enabling on-site characterisation. The spectra were subjected to different data-pretreatments such as multiplicative signal correction (MSC), first and second derivative to remove systematic errors and then evaluated applying a principal component analysis (PCA). A distinction between SWT samples and its adulterants could be achieved with all three devices. Because of its ease of use, and its fast and reliable analysis results, infrared (IR) spectroscopy is becoming increasingly important for the quality control of pharmaceutically relevant herbs.