| Abstract: | As increasing numbers of people worldwide are using traditional Chinese medicines, their characterization has become increasingly critical. This study describes the development of a facile and reproducible high-performance liquid chromatography-based method to obtain the fingerprint of the traditional Chinese medicine Yuhuanglian. First, similarity analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were investigated to interpret differences in the chromatograms of samples from different groups. Seven fingerprint peaks were identified by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS), including magnolforine, coptisine, berberin, epiberberin, dehydroevodiamine, 12α-hydroxylimonin, and 12α-hydroxyevodol. The established fingerprint method was then applied to the analysis of Evodiae Fructus, Coptis Rhizoma, Yuhuanglian, and analogs of Yuhuanglian, which reflected their chemical constituent properties. The proposed method provides a technical platform for the characterization of Yuhuanglian, which will ensure the safe and effective use of this traditional Chinese medicine. |
