RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Chenxiang Huaqi tablets (CXHQTs) are a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) commonly used to treat stomach-related diseases. Currently, the ministerial standards do not provide detailed guidance and regulations on the content determination of CXHQTs, and the reported studies only use individual active components as indicators for determining effective ingredients. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to propose a methodology for quality control of CXHQTs based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprinting combined with the quantitative analysis of multi-components by single marker (QAMS) method. METHODS: HPLC method was used to determine seven active ingredients and performed fingerprint analysis of CXHQTs. To further process chemometric assessment, technical analysis-model including similarity analysis (SA), hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), principal components analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discrimination analysis (OPLS-DA) was set up to differentiate and classify the 20 batches of samples. RESULTS: After comparing the results of QAMS method with the external standard method (ESM), we found there is no significant difference. Besides, the fingerprint of CXHQT was also established. CONCLUSION: HPLC fingerprint combined with the QAMS could be an efficient and selective analysis technique to achieve a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of executing quality processes.