Chromatographic fingerprint and chemometric approach for quality control of Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia)

• Published in: Pertanika Journal of Science and Technology
• Main Author: Zaini N.N.; Saaid M.; Juahir H.; Osman R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press 2017
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85049133791&partnerID=40&md5=5c163cc2074590081ff734b7b839e38f

Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia) is one of the most popular tropical herbal plants as it is believed to enhance virility and sexual prowess. This study looked examined chromatographic fingerprint of Tongkat Ali roots and its products generated using online solid phase-extraction liquid chromatography (SPE-LC) combined with chemometric approaches. The aim was to determine its quality. Pressurised liquid extraction (PLE) technique was used prior to online SPE-LC using polystyrene divinyl benzene (PSDVB) and C18 columns. Seventeen Tongkat Ali roots and 10 products (capsules) were analysed. Chromatographic dataset was subjected to chemometric techniques, namely cluster analysis (CA), discriminant analysis (DA) and principal component analysis (PCA) using 37 selected peaks. The samples were grouped into three clusters based on their quality. The PCA resulted in 11 latent factors describing 90.8% of the whole variance. Pattern matching analysis showed no significant difference (p>0.05) between the roots and products within the same CA grouping. The findings showed the combination of chromatographic fingerprint and chemometric techniques provided comprehensive evaluation for efficient quality control of Tongkat Ali formulation. © 2017 Universiti Putra Malaysia Press.