Interest in natural products as therapeutic drugs, traditional herbal remedies or edibles has led to a boom in plant extracts, either as pure compounds or standardized extracts. With the demand comes the need for proper analysis of the various types of bioactive compounds found in botanical and herbal preparations. This is achieved through a set of analytical methodologies of extraction, isolation and characterization.
In this article, researchers from the University Science of Malaysia outlines the various extraction techniques along with its strengths and weaknesses. Some of the techniques discussed are phytochemical screening assays, chromatographic techniques such as HPLC and TLC as well as non-chromatographic techniques such as immunoassay and Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR).