Abstract
Adulteration of herbal supplements with undeclared synthetic drugs or by mixing the analogues of prescription can cause a significant risk to the public health. Consumers of such adulterated products are at risk of developing serious adverse reactions. The herbal manufacturers have made it more difficult for the analysts to detect these undeclared pharmaceutical analogues in to their products. Therefore, a current need arises to check these practices for the proper quality control of the herbal formulations. Due to the advancement in hyphenated techniques like liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) and other conventional tools, it has become possible to detect synthetic drugs and their structural analogues as adulterants even if they are present in small quantities. The main focus of review is to highlight newer analytical tools used to detect adulteration. It helps us understand how different analytical techniques are used for detection of adulteration along with an idea about possible adulterants used in different herbal formulations.
