ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE To establish the fingerprint of Sophora flavescens， and to screen differential components and determine their contents. METHODS HPLC fingerprints of 12 batches of S. flavescens were established by using Similarity Evaluation System of Chromatographic Fingerprints of TCM （2012 edition）； common peaks were identified and their similarities were evaluated. Chemical pattern recognition analysis [cluster analysis （CA），principal component analysis （PCA） and orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis（OPLS-DA）] were performed with SIMCA 14.1 and SPSS 23.0 software， and differential components which influenced the quality of S. flavescens were screen with variable importance in the projection（VIP）＞1 as standard. Meanwhile， the contents of 4 kinds of differential components were determined by the same HPLC method. RESULTS There were 17 common peaks in the fingerprints of 12 batches of S. flavescens，and their similarities were all higher than 0.96. A total of 6 common peaks were identified， i.e. oxymatrine （peak 1）， oxysophocarpine （peak 2）， matrine （peak 10）， trifolirhizin （peak 14）， kurarinone （peak 16） and norkurarinone （peak 17）. Results of CA， PCA and OPLS-DA showed that 12 batches of S. flavescens were divided into 3 categories according to producing area， i.e. S1-S7 （Shangzhou District of Shaanxi Province） were grouped into one category， S8-S10 （Yichuan County of Henan Province） into one category and S11-S12 （Chifeng City of Inner Mongolia） into one category. VIPs of matrine， norkurarinone， kurarinone and oxysophocarpine and the chemical components represented by peak 11 and 9 were all greater than 1. The contents of matrine， norkurarinone， kurarinone and oxysophocarpine in 12 batches of S. flavescens were 2.65-4.93， 1.54-3.44， 9.63-12.94 and 5.08-6.10 mg/g， respectively. CONCLUSIONS HPLC fingerprint of S. flavescens is established successfully in the study， and can be used to screen 6 differential components by combining with chemical pattern recognition analysis， which can provide reference for quality control of S. flavescens.