Recent advancements and applications in the analysis of traditional Chinese medicines.

One of the general hurdles limiting the application and development of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) is their occasional poor or inconsistent quality. Being multi-component mixtures, however, assuring the quality of such preparations is a challenging task. In recent years significant analytical advancements and innovations were made in relation to this particular problem among others. This review summarizes respective reports within the last five years, and reflects the multitude of current methods the analyst can choose from. Besides established techniques, such as HPLC or CE, analytical methods also include more "exotic" ones like HSCCC, CEC, biologically based assays, and the use of IR spectroscopy. Fingerprinting techniques, which are especially popular for analyzing TCM remedies, are also mentioned. Selected examples for currently observable trends will be presented and briefly discussed so that the current status of TCM analysis is clearly visualized.