ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE To establish the grade s tandard for Panax quinquefoli um and to evaluate the quality of different grades of medicinal materials. METHODS Totally 24 batches of P. quinquefolium were used as test samples. Pearson correlation analysis method was used to analyze the correlation between qualitative analysis indicators （taproot length ，taproot diameter and weight of single root ）and internal component indicators （ethanol-soluble extract ，and the contents of ginsenoside Rg 1，ginsenoside Re ， ginsenoside Rb 1，ginsenoside Rc ，ginsenoside Rb 2，ginsenoside Rd ，pseudo-ginsenoside F 11）. Combined with chemometrics methods，the reference indexes for the classification of P. quinquefolium were selected ，and the classification standards were formulated. HPLC-ELSD fingerprints of 24 batches of P. quinquefolium were established and their similarity evaluation was also performed. The chromatographic peaks were identified by comparison with the reference substance ，and then the quality of different grades of P. quinquefolium was evaluated by cluster analysis. RESULTS After screening ，taproot diameter ，the weight of single root and the content of ginsenoside Rd were taken as the reference indexes for the classification of P. quinquefolium . According to above 3 indexes，P. quinquefolium were divided into 3 grades：special grade ，first grade and second grade. According to the center value of K-means clustering ，the total score of special-grade medicinal materials was more than 135.40，that of first-grade medicinal materials was 61.82-135.40，and that of second-grade medicinal materials was less than 61.82. In the HPLC-ELSD fingerprints of 24 batches of P. quinquefolium ，25 common peaks were confirmed ，and 7 characteristic peaks were identified. The similarity of the chromatograms of P. quinquefolium of special grade ，first grade and second grade with fingerprints ranged 0.980-0.989，0.962-0.968，0.940-0.949，respectively. The results of cluster analysis showed that different grades of P. quinquefolium could be identified significantly. CONCLUSIONS The grade standard and HPLC-ELSD fingerprints of P. quinquefolium are established，which can be applied for exclusive identification of P. quinquefolium ，and provide reference for its quality control and grade classification.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To combine macroscopical characteristic indices and chemical indices of Andrographis Herba to evaluate its quality grade. Methods: Both macroscopical characteristic indices and chemical indices (the content of four active diterpenoids and the content of ethanol-soluble extractives) of different batches of Andrographis Herba were determined. The macroscopical characteristic indices were encoded using the method of numerical taxonomy, and the content of four active diterpenoids were determined by HPLC. To screen out the appropriate indices for classification, the correlational analyses were conducted between encoded macroscopical characteristic indices and chemical indices. The quality grade was made by principal component clustering analysis according these evaluation indices, and then was analyzed through partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Furthermore, a partial least squares (PLS) regression was constructed for the quality grade prediction of Andrographis Herba. Results: It showed that the samples could be divided into three grades according to the principal component clustering analysis, and was reasonable evaluating by PLS-DA. The PLS regression model for quality grade of Andrographis Herba was constructed as follows: grade Y=3.761-0.020×the leaf content-0.388×the content of andrographolide-1.117×the content of neoandrographolide-0.274×the content of deoxyandrographolide-0.287×the content of 14-deoxy-11,12-didehydro-andrographolide-0.302×the content of four active diterpenoids-0.104×the content of ethanol-soluble extractives-0.015×the color of stem-0.008 4×the color of leaf-0.003×the diameter of base part of stem+0.020×the number of branch+0.137×the diameter of the upper stem+0.011×plant height, if Y=0.7-1.3, the predicted quality was grade A, if Y=1.7-2.3, then B grade, and if Y=2.7-3.3, C grade or qualified product. Conclusion: The model of grade evaluation we constructed using principal component clustering analysis combing with PLS regression analysis performed well, which was applicable in evaluating the quality grade of Andrographis Herba and other traditional Chinese medicines. It also provided a new strategy for study on grade standards of traditional Chinese medicines.
ABSTRACT
A rapid and accurate method for determination of astragaloside Ⅳ was established,which was further applied to determine the contents of astragaloside Ⅳ in 87 batches of different origin and different grade of Astragali Radix. The ROC curve was used to analyze the contents of astragaloside Ⅳ in different origin. Simultaneous contents of astragaloside Ⅳ in different grade were compared with chemometrics. HPLC-ELSD method was used to determine the contents of astragaloside Ⅳ. A Vensil MP C18 column( 4. 6 mm×250 mm,5 μm) was used with acetonitrile-water( 32 ∶68) as the mobile phase at a flow rateof 1 m L·min-1. The column temperature was 25 ℃ with ELSD parameters as follows: gas flow rate was 2. 5 L·min-1,the drift tube heating temperature was set to 105 ℃,and the gain value was 4. 0. The optimized method avoided the problem that the consumable quality unstable and the recovery rate was not high. The contents determined by the optimized method were higher than the pharmacopoeia method,with less time and high recovery rate. The ROC curve analysis showed that there was no significant difference of contents of astragaloside Ⅳ between the top grade of Shanxi wild-simulated Astragali Radix top and the first grade of Gansu cultivated Astragali Radix. The contents of astragaloside Ⅳ in the second,third and fourth grade of Shanxi wild-simulated Astragali Radix was significantly higher than those of produced from Gansu.There was a significant negative correlation between the contents of astragaloside Ⅳ and grade in Shanxi Astragali Radix. While there was no correlation for Gansu Astragali Radix. This study provided the basis for the quality grade standard of Astragali Radix.