RESUMEN
ObjectiveTo obtain content characteristics of inorganic elements in Scutellariae Radix （aged 1-4 years）， and to explore the feasibility of identifying the growth years of Scutellariae Radix based on characteristic spectrum of inorganic elements combined with chemometric models. MethodAfter microwave digestion， the contents of Mn， Zn， Ca， Fe， Mg， Na， K， Cr， Cu， Se， As， Cd， Hg， Pb and Ni in 21 batches of Scutellariae Radix were determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry （ICP-OES） and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry （ICP-MS）. Meanwhile， characteristic spectrum of inorganic elements in samples was drawn. The identification model was constructed to discriminate the growth years of Scutellariae Radix based on the combination of principal component analysis （PCA）， Fisher discriminant function and support vector machine （SVM）. ResultThe contents of Mn （7.79-36.48 μg·g-1）， Zn （10.12-31.43 μg·g-1）， Cu （6.38-17.20 μg·g-1）， K （2.98-13.89 μg·g-1）， Mg （3.45-7.78 μg·g-1） and Ca （2.32-7.09 μg·g-1） in Scutellariae Radix were detected by ICP-OES and ICP-MS， and their contents increased with the prolongation of growth years. PCA results showed that Cu， Ni， Cd， Na， Mg， Fe， Ca， Zn， Mn and Hg were characteristic elements of Scutellariae Radix. Samples with different years could be divided into four categories in the spatial characteristic diagram of Fisher discriminant analysis. The correct rate of SVM model for identifying the growth years of samples was 95.2%. ConclusionThis established method is accurate and rapid for discriminating the growth years of Scutellariae Radix， which can provide reference for the identification of other Chinese medicinal materials. It is suggested that some elements should be considered as indexes in subsequent construction of the quality evaluation system of Scutellariae Radix.