Phytochemicals analytical methods

The analysis of phytochemicals is a tedious process involving several steps in which care must be taken to avoid degradation and contamination. Recent advancements in extraction, concentration, purification and analytical procedures of phytochemicals have been made, but additional developments are needed to assist in the identification and quantification of the diverse array of phytochemicals present in plants and foods, as well as metabolites in biological samples. Specifically there is a need to automate sample extraction, clean-up, and concentration steps to facilitate the screening of phytochemicals develop analytical methods with improved sensitivity, resolution and throughput that utilize less organic solvents and develop concentration and purification methods to produce analytical standards that are not available commercially. Continued advancements in sample preparation and analytical techniques will assist researchers in their quest to identify and quantify the vast array of phytochemicals present in plants... 

Phenols are an important group of phytochemicals with significant health beneficial effects. Extraction of phenols firom the biological sources is a growing field of interest and is an integrated part of analytical methods. Some of the common methods of extraction of phenolic compounds are solvent extraction, accelerated solvent extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, ultrasonic extraction, and microwave extractimi. Separation is the next important step of analytical methods, which is done to separate the required phenolic components from the unwanted part of the extract. In case of phenols, methods such as... 

Harris, R.K., Greaves, J., Alexander, D., Wilson, T., and Haggerty, W.J., Development of stahility-indicating analytical methods for flaxseed lignans and their precursors, in Food Phytochemicals II. Teas, Spices, and Herbs, Osawa, C.-T., Huang, M.-T., and Rosen, R.T. (Eds), American Chemical Society, 547, 295-305, Washington DC, WA, 1994. 

The proposed method is applicable to the analytical control of 1-4 for scientific and industrial purposes. This method has been applied for determination of the hydroxycoumarin composition of all extracts in our further biological studies. It could be successfully used for phytochemical investigation of many hydroxycoumarin-bearing plants belonging to different families. 

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