The advances of electromigration techniques applied for alkaloid analysis

Alkaloids are natural products of metabolism found mainly in plants. Their diversified pharmacological activities as medical agents and extensive occurrence in nutritional products demand the development of reliable and sensitive analytical tools. This review presents the developments in the field of electromigration techniques and specifically capillary and microchip electrophoresis. We include the main aspects of interest to researches over the past 12 years. The scope of this review covers detection, on‐ and off‐line preconcentration techniques, chiral separation and developments in the field of microchip electrophoresis. Their applications in alkaloid determination, capillary electrochromatography and inter‐molecular interactions are also examined. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.