OBJECTIVE To establish the fingerprint of volatile components of Dahuoluo pills by gas chromatography(GC), and to explore the impact of different manufacturers and different preparation processes on the quality of Dahuoluo pills through multi-mode chemometric identification methods.

METHODS Volatile component fingerprints were established to identify common peaks and a GC multi-index component determination method was developed for Dahuoluo pills. SPSS25.0 and SIMCA14.0 data analysis software were used to perform cluster analysis, principal component analysis, partial least squares discriminant analysis, and correlation analysis.

RESULTS The established GC method effectively separated and determined the different volatile components in Dahuoluo pills. The fingerprint analysis revealed the presence of 25 common peaks in all samples, with 15 of them being known peaks. Clustering analysis results indicated that all samples could be classified into 5 categories. Specifically, the small honeyed pills belonged to a single category, while the large honeyed pills from 7 different manufacturers were divided into four categories. This different maight be due to the preparation process and medicinal materials between manufacturers. The results of principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis demonstrated that the peak areas of 25 common peaks effectively differentiate between different dosage forms and manufacturers of Dahuoluo pills. Among these peaks, the 9 most influential ones for classification were peak No.1, peak No.10(benzoic acid), peak No.7, peak No.5(eucalyptol), peak No.14, peak No.15(vanillin), peak No.4(limonene), peak No.12(5-hydroxymethylfurfural), and peak No.20.

CONCLUSION The content of volatile components in Dahuoluo pills is greatly affected by different dosage forms and preparation processes, which provides a reference basis for establishing a quality control system for Dahuoluo pills.