MEKC AS AN IMPROVED METHOD TO DETECT FALSIFICATIONS IN THE FLOWERS OFARNICA-MONTANA AND A-CHAMISSONIS

Arnica montana and Arnica chamissonis ssp. foliosa flowers are often a dultered by blending them with those from Heterotheca inuloides. TLC, HPLC, and TSP LC/MS have been proposed to detect this kind of falsific ation. A new method based on micellar electrokinetic chromatography (M EKC) has been developed. This procedure permits us to characterize rap idly each drug and to detect easily falsifications from H. inuloides i n Arnica drugs.