Chemical separation and characterization of complex samples with herbal medicine

Herbal medicine has attracted great interest throughout the world. However, separation and characterization of components in herbs is still a challenge. Advanced techniques involved in this task, mainly including hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography, supercritical fluid chromatography, two-dimensional chromatography and preparative chromatography, have showing an ongoing development in recent years. In this review, in addition to summarizing their progress and applications in herbal medicine in the last five years, their combination with mass spectrometry, activity screening or other techniques were introduced in detail.