OBJECTIVE  To establish HPLC fingerprint of Guzhecuoshang capsules, and its quality was evaluated by chemical pattern recognition.

METHODS  The HPLC-DAD method was used to establish the fingerprint of Guzhecuoshang capsules. The main chromatographic peaks were confirmed and assigned, and finally analyzed them through cluster analysis(CA), principal component analysis(PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) models.

RESULTS  The similarity of 75 batches of Guzhecuoshang capsules was covered from 0.685 to 0.986. A total of 26 common peaks were marked, and 6 components were identified respectively: hydroxysafflor yellow A(peak 1), ferulic acid(peak 6), aloeemodin(peak 15), emodin(peak 19), chrysophanol(peak 24) and physcion(peak 26). CA could be divided into five categories. The PCA and OPLS-DA screened out 13 main differentially contributing components, and it was indicated by the attribution of components that controlling the quality of safflower play an important role in ensuring the stability of the quality of Guzhecuoshang capsules.

CONCLUSION  The established HPLC fingerprint is relatively stable and reliable, which can basically reflect the characteristics of the chemical components in the compound, and can also provide a reference for the quality control and standard improvement of Guzhecuoshang capsules.