Study on UPLC Fingerprint of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium Formula Granules

OBJECTIVE To establish an UPLC fingerprint method of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium formula granules to provide a reference for evaluation of the overall quality. METHODS UPLC was performed on a Waters Acquity UPLC BEH C₁₈ analytical column(2.1 mm×10 mm, 1.7 μm). Acetonitrile and 0.2% phosphoric acid was adopted as the mobile phase by gradient elution at the flow rate of 0.3 mL·min^-1. The detector wavelength was set at 283 nm and the injection volume was 2 μL. Using hesperidin as reference, UPLC fingerprints of 12 batches of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium formula granules were determined. The similarity of 12 batches of samples was evaluated by TCM Chromatographic Fingerprint Similarity Evaluation System (2012 edition) to confirm common peak. Cluster analysis and principal component analysis were performed by using SPSS Statistics 24 software. RESULTS There were 18 common peaks in UPLC chromatograms of 12 batches of samples, the similarity of which was >0.970, indicating the chemical composition of 12 batches of samples were consistent. Twelve batches of samples were clustered into 2 categories; S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 and S6 were clustered into one category; S7, S8, S9, S10, S11 and S12 were clustered into the other category. By principal component analysis, the accumulative contribution rate of two main component was 89.424%, and comprehensive score of S2 was the highest with the best quality. CONCLUSION Established fingerprint, the results of cluster analysis and principal component analysis can provide reference for quality evaluation of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium formula granules.