HPLC Fingerprint of Radix Paeoniae Alba from Different Habitats and Different Cultivated Species

Objective To establish the HPLC chromatographic fingerprint analysis for the quality control of Radix Paeoniae Alba from different producing areas and different cultivated species. Methods HPLC-DAD method was applied to establish the chromatographic fingerprint of 44 batches of Radix Paeoniae Alba samples,(including 2 batches of Radix Paeoniae Rubra and 5 batches of cultivated Radix Paeoniae Alba).Hypersil-C18(250 mm×4.6 mm i.d,5 μm)was used and gradient eluted with acetonitrile: water(acidified to 0.05% with phosphoric acid),the flow rate was set at 1.0ml/ml and column temperature was set at 40℃,the detection wavelength was set at 230nm and the analysis time was 60min with an equilibrium time of 14min. Results The HPLC chromatographic fingerprint of Radix Paeoniae Alba showing 14 characteristic peaks was established.Based on the similarity analysis,all the samples could be divided into 3 categories.Furthermore,the peak height ratio of paeoniflorin to albiflorin was calculated and summarized as follows:(5 ～ 10)∶1 in the superior,(3.0 ～ 3.5)∶1 in the general,(1.0 ～ 3.0)∶1 in the inferior,respectively;four batches of cultivated Radix Paeoniae Alba showed good similarities with other samples from main producing areas and the coefficients were above 0.90.The LC-MS spectra of their common peaks were coincided with those of other Radix Paeoniae Alba sample. Conclusion The results indicated that the inherent quality of these cultivated species was similar with that of Radix Paeoniae Alba from main producing areas and more stable and controllable.Therefore,they can be used as new resources of Radix Paeoniae Alba.The established HPLC-DAD fingerprint method is repeatable,feasible and can provide the more intuitively evaluating on the quality of Radix Paeoniae Alba with the summarized variation pattern of the peak area ratio of paeoniflorin to albiflorin.