QUALITY CONTROL OF MELISSA OFFICINALIS COMMERCIALIZED MEDICINAL PRODUCTS BY CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS

S. ARCE; M.G. ACOSTA; J. LLABOT; D. ALLEMANDI; GOMEZ M.R.

Córdoba

Encuentro; Report from the 1st Annual RICiFA Meeting (International Meeting on Pharmaceutical Sciences 2010); 2010

Universidad Nacional de Córdoba - UNC

A large percentage of world population, consume regularly infusions and/or crude extracts derived from plant material for the primary health care.The leaves of “lemon balm” (Melissa officinalis L.) are traditionally used in the folk medicine because of their sedative, aromatic, digestive and antispasmodic properties. The European and the British Pharmacopoeia assays for Melissa leaf quality control establish the quantification of total hydroxyccinamic derivatives expressed as rosmarinic acid (RA). This compound is a natural constituent in several herbs belonging Lamiaceae family, therefore was used as a marker compound. On the other hand, “catmint” (Nepeta cataria L.), which is used in gastrointestinal and respiratory hyperactive disorders is a common adulterant of M. officinalis.The aim of this work is to develop a capillary electrophoresis (CE) method for the characterization and quality control of Lamiaceae family herbs in a simple, fast and reliable way, as well as, an approach to detect rapidly M. officinalis adulteration or substitution, particularly by N. cataria in different commercial medicinal samples.