Dear friends

According to the WHO the global market for herbal medicines currently stands at over US $ 60 billion annually and is growing steadily.
In China, traditional herbal preparations account for up to 50 % of the total medicinal consumption. In Africa, even up to 80 % of the population uses traditional medicine for primary health care.

However, taking a herbal preparation made from the wrong species of plant as well as the unregulated or inappropriate use of traditional medicines can have negative or dangerous effects on health. Additionally the growing herbal market and its great commercial benefit can pose a threat to biodiversity through overharvesting of the raw material or it can soar the adulteration of natural medicinal preparations and products.

Hence, the analysis of botanicals is an essential basis to control such adverse effects. In this CBS issue several articles (p. 2Ð7) are dealing with botanicals and illustrate impressively the benefits of planar chromatography. Planar chromatography is one step ahead not only due to its image feature, but also due to bioactivity-based detection (p. 11-13), an innovative concept of analysis.

Sincerely yours,
Gerda Morlock
Editor CBS