Light scanning replaces slow chemistry to grade herbal plant powders
Joshi R, Kholiya S, Pandey H, Singh M, Tiwari A, Lim J, Sathasivam R, Faqeerzada MA, Park SU, Cho BK.
Medicinal Plants
If you dry your own herbs like echinacea or calendula for tea, this points toward a future where a quick scan, not a lab test, could tell you how potent your batch really is.
Researchers pointed special cameras that see beyond visible light at powdered medicinal plants to measure two groups of beneficial compounds, phenolics and flavonoids, without destroying the sample or doing slow chemical tests. By picking out the most useful wavelengths of light, their predictions matched traditional lab results almost perfectly. The scanning also let them create visual maps showing exactly where these compounds concentrate within each powder sample.
Key Findings
Combined short-wave infrared and visible near-infrared hyperspectral imaging tested on 12 medicinal plant powder samples
Optimized models achieved R² values of 0.985 and 0.996 for phenolic and flavonoid content prediction respectively
Selecting the most informative spectral wavelengths (VIP) improved prediction accuracy while enabling spatial chemical maps of compound distribution
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists used camera-based light scanning instead of slow lab chemistry to measure health-boosting compounds in medicinal plant powders, hitting accuracy above 98%. This could make quality testing for herbal products faster and cheaper.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Non-Destructive Analysis of Phenolic and Flavonoid Contents in Medicinal Plant Powders Using Hyperspectral Imaging and Variable Selection.
Phenolic and flavonoid contents in medicinal plants are essential to their growth and development and provide numerous health benefits, yet their quantification using traditional wet chemistry is l...
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