Quality Control Methodology and Their Application in Analysis on HPLC Fingerprint Spectra of Herbal Medicines

Lu Wei-Jie,Zou Hua-Bin,Du Ai-Qin,Wei Pei-Hai,Hassan Y Aboul-Enein,Zhang Xin-Ling,Yang Guo-Sheng

doi:10.1155/2012/851792

Abstract

As traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is gradually accepted by many countries, people pay much attention to the quality of herbal medicines. Because of the significant variation in active components in them, the quality control of herbal medicines is a very important issue. Nowadays, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint spectra (FPS) are widely used in identification and quality control of herbal medicines. This paper will analyze the methodology and their application in identifying and evaluating herbal medicines by means of HPLC FPS, which includes simple comparing, clustering, principal component analysis (PCA), and similarity analysis methods.

Highlights

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been developed and used in China for nearly three thousands of years
There were 19 characteristic peaks in these high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint spectra (FPS), and they were clustered by means of SPSS software, in which the peak areas of unit mass of herbs were selected as variableness, and a matrix with 15 rows 19 columns was established
The principal component analysis (PCA) scores plot demonstrated that information obtained from the 18 common components was enough for discrimination of the authentic Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae (PCR) and Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae Viride (PCRV) samples from the “mix peels”

Summary

Introduction

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been developed and used in China for nearly three thousands of years. The spectral fingerprinting techniques are quick, easy, and accurate while the HPLC method is able to determine the partial components in herbs, and can determine their concentrations quantitatively. For this reason, HPLC FPS is currently considered a critical method in evaluating quality of herbal medicine. The common methods used in identifying herbal medicines based on HPLC fingerprint spectra are discussed including the direct comparing method, the analysis on similarity, dual index method, the pattern recognition methods, such as principal component analysis (PCA), clustering, and the invariableness analysis of biological system

Comparing Methods

Clustering Analysis

Similarity Analysis

25 PCR-C Purchased from Heilongjiang Unknown 55 PCRV-C

Fingerprint Spectra Invariableness Analysis

Findings

Concluding Remarks