Herbs and Spices are a group of foods highly susceptible to adulteration and fraud because of their high value. In this study, a new high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with UV–vis detection was developed for the characterisation, identification and authentication of cinnamon, oregano, thyme, sesame, bay leaf, clove, cumin, and vanilla. This was achieved by the chromatographic separation of a methanol extract, and identification of 6 phenolic biomarkers (sesamol, eugenol, thymol, carvacrol, salicylaldehyde and vanillin) analysed on 87 samples of the 8 herbs and spices. The data was first treated by PCA (principal component analysis) followed by PLS-DA (partial least squares discriminant analysis) to give good classification between the 8 herbs and spices. The assay thus provides a relatively inexpensive, quality control and screening tool to ensure a correct assurance of the studied spices and herbs.
Read the full open access paper
