Characterization, quantitation and similarity evaluation of Codonopsis lanceolata from different regions in China by HPLC-Q-TQF-MS and chemometrics

Abstract

Codonopsis lanceolata, a valuable medicinal plant, has been cultivated in various areas, but lacks effective comparison and evaluation methods An approach was proposed on qualitative and quantitative analysis of cultured C. lanceolata by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry in this work. Samples from different regions were compared by chemometric analysis. As a result, twenty-two peaks, including 7 triterpenoid saponins, 4 phenylpropanoids, 2 polyacetylenes, 3 amino acids, 2 nucleosides, 1 organic acid and three other kinds of compounds, were assigned based either on reference standards or literature. Among them, 9 compounds were reported for the first time in C. lanceolata. In addition, 5 constituents were quantified simultaneously in 18 samples of C. lanceolata. Amino acids, phenylpropanoids and polyacetylenes could be undoubtedly determined, to comprehensively evaluate the quality of C. lanceolata. The chemometric methods, including similarity analysis, hierarchical clustering analysis and principal component analysis, were introduced to classify the samples from different regions of China. This work was expected to obtain a comprehensive understanding of characterization, quantitation and similarity evaluation of cultured C. lanceolata from different regions in China, which could provide a basis for the further study of this herb.