MULTIPLE COMPOUNDS DETERMINATION AND FINGERPRINT ANALYSIS OF PULSATILLA CHINENSIS (BUNGE) REGEL BY HPLC COUPLED WITH EVAPORATIVE LIGHT SCATTERING DETECTION FOR QUALITY CONTROL

For comprehensive quality control of Pulsatilla chinensis (Bunge) Regel (Baitouweng in Chinese), the methods including multiple compounds determination (MCD) and chemical fingerprint analysis (CFA) were carried out. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD) was developed for analysis. In the process of MCD, methodology for analysis was evaluated and good results were obtained for simultaneous determination of the five marker compounds. In CFA, the similarities were calculated based on the relative peak areas (RPA) and relative retention times (RRT) of 18 characteristic peaks of the medicinal plants and two adulterants (Rhaponticum uniflorum (L.) DC and Potentilla discolor Bge) collected from different parts of China. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were effectively applied to distinguish the origins of different samples. The results indicate that the method by combination of MCD and CFA is suitable fo...