THE DETERMINATION OF CONTAINED COMPOUNDS IN MILK THISTLE [SILYBUM MARIANUM L. (GAERTN.)] BY THE MEANS OF FT-NIR

The aim of our work was to verify the possibility of using Fourier transform near infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIR) for the determination of the content of individual silymarin complex components in the achenes of milk thistle [Silybum marianum L. (Gaernt.)] and to evaluate the possibility of distinguishing between the two milk thistle varieties (Silyb and Mirel) by the means of this spectroscopic analysis. The compounds were extracted for the determination of the silymarin complex components and determined by the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results obtained from analytical methods were used to generate the calibration model for the FT-NIR spectrometer using the partial least square method (PLS). According to correlation coefficients of the calibration models obtained for individual ingredients of the silymarin complex (0.725–0.987) these models are suitable for the preliminary determination of silymarin complex constituents. The varieties Silyb and Mirel have different ratio of the main silymarin complex components. The method of discriminant analysis (DA) was used to distinguish the varieties. Calibration model that can classify these varieties was created.