Metabolic profiling as parameter on quality of commercial botanical products in Colombia

Botanical products are finished and labeled products that contain plant material as ingredients that may be a food or a drug, a medical device or a cosmetic. Quality assessment of this kind of products is necessary due to the effects they may they have in human health. As part of our studies focused on quality control of botanicals, different metabolomics tools like chemical profiling by hyphenated chromatographic techniques using multivariate analysis were used to determine and measure several features of some botanical products such as green tea (Camelia sinensis), roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa), highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) and several varieties of colored kernels of maize (Zea mayz) commercialized in Colombia. Total phenolic (TPC), flavonoid (TFC), catechin (TCC), anthocyanins content (TAC), radical scavenging ability, and reducing power were also determined. All the measurements were processed using multivariate analysis with the aim to establish the influence of a given parameter on quality assessment of this kind of products. Several correlations between chemical profiles and different features of each product were found in order to define the quality characteristics of this kind of botanicals.