RESUMO
Objective: In the paper, the principle of determining similarity of chromatographic fingerprints of TCM has been introduced. Methods: In the chromatographic fingerprint analysis of TCM, the whole fluctuation of the chemical composition of TCM products could be estimated by the comparison between their chromatographic fingerprints. Two methods, which determine the similarity between chromatographic fingerprints using peaks area or data points of chromatogram, have been investigated by the simulation and experiments. Results: The results both suggest that compared with the method for determining similarity using data points, the method using peaks area is more robust and its calculating results is more reliable. Conclusion: Peaks area method is more suitable for chromatographic fingerprint of TCM.