PubMed · 2026-06-26
Scientists are using a powerful chemical fingerprinting technique called mass spectrometry metabolomics to identify, verify, and characterize herbal supplements and medicinal plants more accurately than ever before. This approach can detect when products are mislabeled or adulterated and reveal how plant chemistry varies by cultivar, growing conditions, and processing.
Untargeted mass spectrometry metabolomics can profile thousands of compounds simultaneously in complex plant mixtures, enabling taxonomic classification at the cultivar and chemotype level.
The method can detect adulteration and misidentification in botanical dietary supplements and herbal medicines — a persistent problem in a largely self-regulated industry.
Metabolomics datasets reveal how chemical variation between plant materials relates to differences in nutritional, medicinal, or toxicological effects, linking chemistry to real-world safety and efficacy.