Assessment of the quality of plant material in commercial products of ground ivy herb (Glechomae hederaceae herba)

Abstract

G. hederacea has a well-established position in traditional medicinal systems of Europe and Asia. Despite the significant increase in the number of products based on this plant on the European market, there is as yet no European Pharmacopoeia monograph on Glechomae herba, therefore legally binding quality standards of medical-grade ground ivy herb in member states that ratified Convention on the elaboration of a European Pharmacopoeia. This study aimed to investigate differences in the quality of the commercially available single-herb loose G. hederacea products in the aspects of authentication, purity of plant material and content of bioactive substances. As the therapeutic potential of G. hederacea is related to the presence of phenolic compounds, the study on qualitative and quantitative analysis of phenolics by HPLC method was performed. The analysis revealed significant differences in the quality of ground ivy plant material, in terms of the content of bioactive compounds. The determined levels of rosmarinic acid, chlorogenic acid, gallic acid and rutin in the products ranged from 0.10 to 4.55 mg/g DW; 0.18–1.57 mg/g DW; 0.02–1.28 mg/g DW; to 6.01 mg/g DW, respectively. Additionally, the products varied significantly in the sum of determined polyphenols (1.5 – 7.16 mg/g DW). The findings highlight the need to establish the standards and requirements for bioactive phenolic content to ensure high-quality plant material with significant medicinal value. Additionally, our study suggests that rosmarinic acid, rutin, chlorogenic acid, and the total polyphenol content could serve as quality markers for Glechomae hederaceae herba in pro-health applications.