Development and Application of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) for Quality Control of Chinese Medicine

Owing to the complicated chemical compositions of Chinese herbal medicines(CHMs), common analytical methods such as chromatography and electrophoresis, are time consuming and require experienced personnel to perform the analysis. The samples will also be destoryed during preparation.

Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) has been developed and proved to be a powerful tool for qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis of constituents in food, agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. It provides a fast, nondestructive method, requiring minimal or no sample preparation and the precision can be high whereas no reagents are required and no wastes are produced comparing to traditional analytical methods.