ABSTRACT
Lignans were already found in plants in the 19th century; the term ‘‘lignan’’ was first introduced by Haworth in 1936. As secondary metabolites of plants, lignans play a significant role in mammalian physiology; they not only constitute a part of medicinal preparations (phytopharmaceuticals), but also occur commonly in food (feed) materials, or more precisely in mammalian food. Hence it is desirable to have rapid chromatographic methods available, which, using selective detectors, detect possible presence of these substances in the analyte.
