Feasibility of UV–VIS–Fluorescence spectroscopy combined with pattern recognition techniques to authenticate a new category of plant food supplements

Bud extracts, named also “gemmoderivatives”, are a new category of natural products, obtained macerating meristematic fresh tissues of trees and plants. In the European Community these botanical remedies are classified as plant food supplements. Nowadays these products are still poorly studied, even if they are widely used and commercialized. Several analytical tools for the quality control of these very expensive supplements are urgently needed in order to avoid mislabelling and frauds. In fact, besides the usual quality controls common to the other botanical dietary supplements, these extracts should be checked in order to quickly detect if the cheaper adult parts of the plants are deceptively used in place of the corresponding buds whose harvest-period and production are extremely limited. This study aims to provide a screening analytical method based on UV–VIS–Fluorescence spectroscopy coupled to multivariate analysis for a rapid, inexpensive and non-destructive quality control of these products.