Capillary electrophoresis of natural products: highlights of the last five years (2006-2010).

An extensive search of the published research and review articles indicated a growing number of works that employed electroseparation techniques. Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and electrokinetic chromatography (EKC), in particular, were found to be popular for the analyses of natural products. This review outlines the important developments in this field over the years, especially during the 2006-2010 period. An overview of the natural product applications such as pharmaceuticals/herbal products, fingerprinting and quality control, food and food contaminants, and toxicological compounds of interest to forensics were presented. Important areas of detection strategies, microchips, sample preconcentration, and chiral separations were also discussed. Hence, quick information was provided on the researches already undertaken and the possibilities of unexplored areas. In addition, fundamental concepts for the understanding of CZE and EKC and their suitability for natural products analyses were briefly discussed.