I need suggestions for selection of major phytonstituents as chemical markers for quality and authenticity evaluation of herbal extracts and instant beverages made from them.
The answer on your question largely depends on what you mean with quality and authenticity:
- absence or low levels of unwanted contaminants: a large range of analytical methods is avaialable for monitoring chemical contaminants.
- nutritional quality: presence of fibres, unsaturated fats, artificial added sugars, artificial colorants or flavours. If the definition of "quality" is to minimise E-number chemicals, than a large range of different chemical or biological markers occurs.
- authenticity in the sense of control of composition: chemical or DNA profiling, e.g. NIR, combined with chemometrics.
- geographic origin: profile of isotopes of a range of elements. The combination of a range of specific isotopes can point to a specified region.
In all cases loads of papers can be found.
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