Effects of different softening methods on quality of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: A method was established to obtain fingerprint and determination of six components in Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma Pieces (GRRP) based on HPLC-PDA, and samples with four kinds of softening methods (showering moistening, steaming, 70 ℃ decompression steaming, 85 ℃ decompression steaming) were analyzed. Methods: The content of total flavonoids and total saponins was determined by ultraviolet spectrophotometry with liquiritin and glycyrrhizic acid as reference materials. Simultaneous determination of six components of liquiritin, ononin, isoliquiritin, glycyrrhizin, echinatin, glycyrrhizic acid was performed based on HPLC. Changes of the components content in the samples which treated by different softening methods were compared. The similarity evaluation of samples with different softening methods was carried out by the chromatographic fingerprint similarity evaluation system of traditional Chinese medicine, and cluster analysis was also carried out. Results: The results showed that the content of total flavonoids and total saponins in untreated samples was the highest, and the content of total flavonoids and total saponins in samples treated by showering moistening was the lowest. The three treatment methods of atmospheric pressure steaming, steaming decompression at 70 ℃ and steaming decompression at 85 ℃ had little effect on the samples. The content determination showed that the content of isoliquiritin was decreased significantly after softening treatment. The difference among the different softening treatment groups was not significant. The samples with different softening methods of the three batches of samples were grouped together with their raw products. Different softening methods had no significant difference in the composition of the medicinal herbs. Conclusion: The established method can quickly and accurately determine the six components, and in particular, the content of isoglycyrrhizin should be monitored. Combining production efficiency, production cost and quality evaluation, steaming is the most feasible in the production process. This study provided theoretical guidance for the large-scale production of softening, which was conducive to further standardizing the production process of GRRP.