ABSTRACT
Objective To establish the HPLC fingerprint of Ershen Pills extracted with petroleum ether, which contains Psoraleae Fructus (PF) before and after processing, and initially set up the pattern recognition technique of the extract, so as to provide reference for quality control. Methods HPLC was used, and the separation was performed at 30 ℃ on an Spolar Hplc Packed C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm). Gradient elution was performed with the mobile phases of methanol-acetonitrile (1:1) and water containing 0.1% formic acid. The flow rate was 1 mL/min, and sample size was 10 μL. The UV detection wavelength was set at 210 nm. Furthermore, the fingerprint was analyzed by similarity analysis, as well as pattern recognition technique, including hierarchical clustering analysis and principal component analysis. Results The fingerprints were established respectively consisting of 28 common peaks well separated. There into, six compounds were identified (psoralen, isopsoralen, methyleugenol, methylisoeugenol, dehydrodiisoeugenol, and backuchiol). Compared with the reference spectrum, the similarity degrees were greater than 0.9. When dealing with principal component analysis, the samples were well divided into two categories, which was consistent with the principal component analysis. Meanwhile, the results of principal component analysis prompted some chromatographic peaks which could be used to distinguish between two species. Conclusion The method is stable and reliable, which can be used for quality control of Ershen Pills extracted with petroleum ether. Meanwhile, it is contributing to the entire quality control and quality evaluation when combined with chemical pattern recognition.