A holistic strategy of identification and quality evaluation of frankincense by chromatographic fingerprint combined with chemometrics / 中国药学杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To propose and establish a novel holistic strategy of identification and quality evaluation of frankincense by chromatographic fingerprint analysis. METHODS: The strategy contained five steps. The first step was multi-species sample collection. The second was to establish fingerprint identification and assay under the same chromatographic conditions. The third was components identification by means of reference substances and LC-MS. The fourth was multivariate analysis for identification and classification of certified products and adulterants. The fifth was to evaluate TCMs using similarity threshold and content range criteria. RESULTS: Twenty-six chromatographic peaks were separated and fourteen were identified. Furthermore, HCA heatmap analysis, principal component analysis, partial least squares discrimination, self-organizing map clustering, and support vector machine were used for pattern recognition. The common patterns for three species of frankincenses were established. The content ranges for KBA and AKBA were also calculated. CONCLUSION: The method is specific and can be used to accurately identify and systematically evaluate medicinal frankincense.