Quality Assurance Section at NPRC
The Quality Assurance section at NPRC boasts the following advanced analytical instruments for chemical analysis of plant materials:
- Liquid Chromatograph Tandem Mass Spectrometer (LC-MS/MS): For detection, identification and quantification of both primary and secondary metabolites in herbal materials. Furthermore, the LC-MS/MS is also used for the determination of pesticide residues and natural toxins e.g aflatoxins, ochratoxins and fumonisins in plant materials, water and biologicals;
- Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS): For analysis of essential oils and fragrances as well as other primary metabolites in herbal plants;
- High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) Densitometer: For visualization of screened herbal extracts for the purposes of identification and fingerprinting of their constituents;
- Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer: For determining the elemental composition of plants, soil and fluids;
- Ultra Violet – Visible (UV-Vis) Spectrophotometer: For characterizing chemical compounds in plants and other materials based on their ability to absorb UV and Visible radiation;
- Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) Spectrometer with Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) technology: For creating fingerprints of plant extracts as well as rapid determination of chemical functional groups in isolated plant compounds.
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