Abstract:
OBJECTIVE To establish high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) fingerprint for Hedyotis diffusa Willd and analyze them with different regions, harvesting periods, wild and cultivated and adulterants.
METHODS The HPLC analysis was performed on a Kromasil C18 column(4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 µm) by using a mobile phase of acetonitrile-0.1% phosphoric acid aqueous solution in a gradient elution at a flow rate of 1.0 mL·min–1, with a detection wavelength of 330 nm, and a column temperature of 30 ℃ and the injection volume of 10 µL. Similarity evaluation, cluster analysis(CA), principal component analysis(PCA), and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) were utilized to compare the differences among different regions and harvesting periods and wild and cultivated of Hedyotis diffusa Willd and its adulterants.
RESULTS A total of 12 common peaks of Hedyotis diffusa Willd were identified by HPLC fingerprinting, and by the qualitative identification technique of ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry(UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) identified chlorogenic acid, monotropein, baimaside, quercetin-3-O-sambubioside, kaempferol 3-O-gentiobioside, rutin, quercetin-3-O-2-O-(6-O-E-sinapoyl)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-β-D-galactopyranoside, quercetin-3-O-2-O-(6-O-E-feruloyl)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-β-D-galactopyranoside, (E)-6-O-Coumaroylscandoside methyl ester, kaempferol 3-O-2-O-(6-O-E-feruloyl)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-β-D-galactopyranoside, (E)-6-O-Feruloylscandoside methyl ester, (E)-6-O-Feruloylscandoside methyl ester isomer. Similarity analysis found that there were some differences between the wild and cultivated samples in different places and harvesting periods, and there were obvious differences between the samples and the confused ones. But CA and PCA found that 30 batches of samples had cross-origin phenomenon, indicating that origin was not the key factor affecting its quality. CA, PCA, and OPLS-DA could differentiate 40 batches of samples according to different harvesting periods, wild and cultivated,and botanical origins, and OPLS-DA identified six differential markers through the variable importance in projection(VIP).
CONCLUSION The established fingerprint method can accurately and effectively differentiate between different harvesting periods and wild and cultivated Hedyotis diffusa Willd, as well as its adulterants, which provides reference for quality evaluation and identification of Hedyotis diffusa Willd.