Mapping of Echinacea-based food supplements on the Romania market and qualitative evaluation of the most commonly used products

Abstract The aim of the study was to explore dietary supplements containing Echinacea on the Romanian market and their qualitative characterization. The products available on the market were aggregated in 2018, through an electronic search based on the register of the Romanian Medicine Agency (Agenția Națională a Medicamentului şi a Dispozitivelor Medicale din România – ANMDMR) and the list of dietary supplements registered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Institutul Național de Cercetare-Dezvoltare pentru Bioresurse Alimentare – IBA București, Serviciul național pentru plante medicinale, aromatice și produse ale stupului). There are no Echinacea containing medicines registered in Romania. However, there are 58 dietary supplements in the register, 52% of which are mono-components, 29% contain other herbs, plant extract or vitamins, while 19% are registered as tea. The label of 80% of monocomponent products and 76% of multicomponent supplements contains insufficient information: the plant name, its used part and processing methods (grist, extract, quantity) are not clearly identified. Among the listed dietary supplements, the 12 most commonly used formulations in pharmaceutical practice were subjected to phytochemical chromatographic evaluation: TLC and/or HPLC analysis were used. Three of seven monocomponent products showed proper chromatographic fingerprint, by TLC analysis. One monocomponent sample did not have an adequate chromatographic fingerprint. The labelling of multicomponent products was not appropriate. The TLC test suggests that based on the resulting fingerprint they contain E. purpureae herba. However, due to the presence of other components, the TLC does not allow a clear conclusion regarding the exact composition of the products. The developed HPLC method enables quantification of the concentration of caffeic acid, chicoric acid, echinacoside, chlorogenic and caftaric acids mixture in dietary supplements. None of the tested products contained echinacoside, which is a specific component of E. angustifolia and E. pallida root. In our method, the quantification of caftaric acid is approximate, because it partially overlaps the chlorogenic acid, which is a common component of plant samples, but negligible in Echinacea sp. The tested dietary supplements have a caffeic acid content of 20-140 µg/g, a chicoric acid content of 0.19-2.64 mg/g; the mixture of chlorogenic and caftartic acid is about 0.23-2.07 mg/g.