Quality control of liquid herbal drug preparations: ethanol content and test on methanol and 2-propanol.

In the quality control of liquid herbal drug preparations, i.e. tinctures and liquid extracts, the ethanol content is determined and the test on methanol and 2-propanol is performed. Capillary headspace GC/MS methods for both analyses were developed and fully validated. These specific, selective, accurate and precise methods are a fast and fully automated alternative for the laborious methods of the European Pharmacopoeia, since they need no or only simple sample preparation.