ABSTRACT
A UPLC method has been developed for simultaneous determination of nine furanocoumarins of Angelica dahurics,and was used for quality evaluation of A. dahurica from different habitats. ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 chromatographic column was employed,the separation was performed with the mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and water,and the detection wavelength was set at254 nm. This method was used to simultaneously determine the content of xanthotoxol,oxypeucedaninhydrate,byak-angelicin,psoralen,xanthotoxin,bergapten,oxypeucedanin,imperatorin and isoimperatorin in A. dahurica from different habitats. Then,the further quality assessment of the drug was carried out by similarity evaluation,cluster analysis( CA),principal component analysis( PCA),and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis( OPLS-DA). The content order of measured furanocoumarins from high to low was: oxypeucedanin>imperatorin>isoimperatorin>oxypeucedaninhydrate>bergapten>byak-angelicin>xanthotoxin>xanthotoxol>psoralen,with the mean content 2. 844,1. 277,0. 649 2,0. 216 2,0. 129 8,0. 062 68,0. 052 68,0. 019 30,0. 018 19 mg·g-1,respectively. There were difference between the batches of the drug,and the quality was influenced by smouldering sulphur based on the results of chemical pattern recognition and content determination. Finally,six active ingredients were recognized as the quality makers using OPLS-DA method. The validated UPLC fingerprint combined with chemical pattern recognition method can be used in the quality control and evaluation of A. dahurica.