ABSTRACT
Objective: To establish the quantitative models for analyzing the content of critical quality indicators in the purification process of Gardenia jasminoides intermediate in Reduning Injection using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. Methods: The contents of shanzhiside, geniposidic acid, deacetyl asperulosidic acid methyl ester, genipin-1-β-D-gentiobioside, geniposide, chlorogenic acid, and total acid were determined by the reference method and NIR spectra were acquired. After removing the outliers, selecting the optimal spectral preprocessing method and selecting the best spectral wavelength, partial least squares (PLS) and the least squares support vector machines (LS-SVM) were used to build the models for predicting the contents of the above quality indicators in 18 unknown samples. Results: For shanzhiside, geniposidic acid, deacetyl asperulosidic acid methyl ester, genipin-1-β-D-gentiobioside, geniposide, chlorogenic acid, and total acid, the relative standard errors of prediction (RSEP) was lower than 3% for PLS models and LS-SVM models, indicating both methods could exhibit the satisfactory fitting results and predictive abilities. However, the LS-SVM models of shanzhiside and total acid showed lower predictive errors than PLS models. For geniposidic acid, deacetyl asperulosidic acid methyl ester, genipin-1-β-D-gentiobioside, geniposide, and chlorogenic acid, both models have the closer predictive errors. Conclusion: S-SVM shows better predictive performance than PLS. The established NIR quantitative models can be used for rapidly measuring the content of critical quality indicators in the purification process of G. jasminoides intermediate in Reduning Injection.