ABSTRACT
ObjectiveTo analyze the fingerprint of six pungent herbs based on the molecular connectivity index（MCI）and the matching frequency total statistical moment method， and to study the division and integration of the "imprinting template" of their volatile components， so as to find the common "imprinting template" characteristics of the pungent herbs. MethodThe volatile components of six pungent herbs were extracted by steam distillation， and their fingerprints were established by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry（GC-MS） with a programmed temperature increase（80 ℃ for 5 min， 5 ℃·min-1 to 200 ℃ for 5 min， 2 ℃·min-1 to 230 ℃ for 10 min）， a splitting ratio of 20∶1， an electron bombardment ion source（EI） and the detection range of m/z 35-650， and the average MCI and total statistical moment parameters of the fingerprints were calculated. Then the matching frequency method was used to classify， integrate and confirm the chromatographic peaks of the fingerprints of six pungent herbs. ResultThe average zero order， first-order and second-order MCI values of the volatile components of Pogostemonis Herba， Artemisiae Argyi Folium， Atractylodis Rhizoma， Asari Radix et Rhizoma， Magnoliae Flos and Schizonepetae Herba were 9.02， 5.28 and 5.05， respectively. The average values of peak number， total zero-order moment， total first-order moment and total second-order moment were 60， 169×107， 22.49 min and 36.82 min2， respectively. The 20 integrated imprinting templates were obtained by the matching frequency method for the six pungent herbs， among which three were common imprinting templates with the retention times of （25.97±0.21），（26.90±0.20），（31.64±1.24） min， respectively， and the representative components were valencene，β-elemene， caryophyllin， etc. ConclusionMCI combined the matching frequency total statistical moment can divide and integrate the characteristics of imprinting templates of six pungent herbs， and find their common chromatographic imprinting characteristics， which can provide a reference for the determination of effective substances of pungent herbs.