ABSTRACT
Objective To establish and identify HPLC fingerprints of Panacis Japonici Rhizoma from different regions, and provide a scientific method for quality its control and standardization. Methods The fingerprints of Panacis Japonici Rhizoma were established based on HPLC method. The similarity evaluation, cluster analysis (CA), and principal component analysis (PCA) were applied for the experimental data, in order to find out the similarities and differences among the 10 batches of Panacis Japonici Rhizoma from different regions. Meanwhile, the qualitatively and quantitatively analyze were adopted in the common peaks of Panacis Japonici Rhizoma by total statistical moment method. Results The HPLC fingerprint with 16 common peaks was established, for the common chemical components, six were identified as ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Re, ginsenoside Rb1, chikusetsusaponin V, chikusetsusaponin IV, and chikusetsusaponin IVa, respectively. Among them, the contents of chikusetsusaponin V and IV in different batches of Panacis JaponiciRhizoma samples showed little differences. The similarities of samples from various regions except S7 were over 0.90. The samples were classified into three categories by CA and PCA methods. The parameters of total statistical moment for five species of Panax genus showed significantly differences. Conclusion The developed HPLC fingerprint of Panacis Japonici Rhizoma combined with chemical pattern recognition can provide a scientific instruction for the quality control of Panacis Japonici Rhizoma and the differentiation of five herb medicines from Panax genus.