Effect of adulteration on quality of Farfarae Flos / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: For the adulteration phenomenon of Farfarae Flos, the chemical composition of the flower buds and the rachis, rhizome, and the roots were compared, to provide the basis for the quality control of Farfarae Flos. Methods: The content of tussilagone was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) according to the Chinese Pharmacopeia. The HPLC based fingerprint was also generated, and the similarity and the relative contents of the common peaks between the flower buds and adulteration parts were calculated. The pearson correlation between the relative content of the major compounds and the flower buds ratio, as well as principal component analysis and clustering analysis were also performed. Results: The content of tussilagone and the peak areas of 13 common peaks in the HPLC fingerprint were significantly higher than those in the rachis, rhizome, and the roots, and positively correlated with the flower buds ratio. The results of the principal component analysis and clustering analysis showed that the flower buds showed distinct separation with those adulteration parts. In addition, the compounds within the caffeoyl quinic acids and flavonoids showed positive correlations with each other, and the correlations were also observed between different kinds of components. Conclusion: The major compounds of Farfarae Flos were mainly present in the flower buds, and the quality of Farfarae Flos will be greatly affected when there are more impurities such as pedicel, taproot and rhizome in the crude drugs. Currently, there is no impurity in the Chinese pharmacopeia for Farfarae Flos, and the limit of the impurities should be added to guarantee the quality of Farfarae Flos.