Capillary electrophoresis of phytochemical substances in herbal drugs and medicinal plants.

This paper reviews the applications of electromigration methods in analysis of phytochemical substances in herbal drugs and medicinal plants. A short description of the basic principles of capillary electrophoretic techniques is firstly given, then the overview deals with the applications of selected methods published in the period 2005-2010. The phytochemical substances have been classified according to their chemical nature (e.g. alkaloids, polyphenols, carbohydrates, lipids, terpenes) and the applied CE approaches, namely CZE, NACE, MEKC, MEEKC and CEC, together with the different detection methods, are critically discussed for each of the considered classes of natural compounds.