**5. Conclusion**

People have made use of the properties of different compounds without realising their existence for a long time. Since science found ways to determine the nature of the effects exerted by bioactive compounds (e.g. medicinal plants) analytical methods have been perfected to enable more detailed analysis of the material. Analyses have focused on determination of the intensity of biological activity and on identification of the components responsible for the activity. Many materials have been analysed in search of bio-components. Mastering chroma‐ tographic methods has provided the possibility of high-resolution analysis of compounds, including their biological activity. The analytical methods which have been characterised here are the result of several dozen years of research into improving analytical methods in the search for biologically active compounds. The proposed classification is based on the mechanism of reaction observed in assays. The methods make use of reactions induced by the presence of radicals generated as initiators of oxidation reactions prevented by analysed bioactive compounds. It is not the only possible approach to looking for and analysing bioactive compounds. Various methods of analysing antioxidant activity which have not been men‐ tioned above have been applied on a marginal scale due to their drawbacks. Apart from that, there are methods of analysing biological activity which analyse substances capable of inhibition of/affinity to certain enzymes, e.g. acetylcholinesterase, phosphodiesterase, gluta‐ thione-S-transferase (EAD – Enzyme Activity/Affinity Detection), affinity of bioactive sub‐ stances receptors, e.g. estrogen receptor (RAD – Receptor Affinity Detection) [76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82]. Conjunction of the chromatographic methods of component separation with methods of analysis of biological properties provides great opportunities in their analysis. This has made the search for bioactive substances easier and will aid the future development of new research methods.
