Quantification of phenolic acids by partial least squares Fourier-transform infrared (PLS-FTIR) in extracts of medicinal plants.

Introduction Phenolic compounds are ubiquitous compounds found in all plants as their secondary metabolites. Phenols are becoming increasingly important particularly because of their beneficial effects on health. Objective To provide a faithful calibration model for the simultaneous determination and quantification of phenolic acids, as salicylic, vanillic, p-hydroxybenzoic acids, eugenol and thymol in different extracts of medicinal plants, a comparative study was made between two methods of infrared measurements based on attenuated total reflectance (ATR) and transmission. Methods Characteristic absorbance peak heights of mid-infrared spectra of individual phenolic acids were measured for…