Discrimination of Botanical Origin of Chan-thet, Chan-hom, Chan-chamot, Chan-khao and Chan-thana Using Chemical Test and Thin-layer Chromatography

Objective : To develop the method to discriminate the botanical origin of crude drugs named Chan-thet, Chan-hom, Chan-chamot, Chan-khao and Chan-thana. Methods: Heartwoods of Santalum album , S. spicatum , S. lanceolatum , Tarenna hoaensis , Mansonia gagei , Diospyros decandra and Myristica fragrans which were likely used as above mentioned crude drugs, were examined with various chemical test reactions. Their chemical fingerprints using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) were also studied. Results: Each plant species gave different results on chemical tests and possessed unique TLC chromatograms. Conclusion: Heartwoods of all seven plant species could be discriminated by the reactions with vanillin/sulfuric acid, 10% potassium hydroxide solution and Liebermann-Burchard test. The results were confirmed by their TLC chromatograms developed from hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol (60:30:0.2) and dichloromethane-methanol-formic acid (60:10:1) as mobile phases and detected with vanillin/sulfuric acid spraying reagent. Keywords: Chan-thet, Chan-hom, Chan-chamot, Chan-khao, Chan-thana, chemical test, thin-layer chromatography