Quality Evaluation for Different Original Plant Species of Aurantii Fructus Based on HPLC Fingerprint with Chemical Pattern Analysis

OBJECTIVE To establish HPLC fingerprint of Aurantii Fructus and determine the contents of 10 chemical compounds in the common peak, conducted the quality evaluation of consistence and difference for Aurantii Fructus by chemical pattern recognition technology. So as to provide the reference for quality control and quality standards improvement. METHODS Using acetonitrile-0.1% aqueous formic acid aqueous solution as mobile phase for gradient elution, the detection wavelength was set at 330 nm, established the common pattern fingerprint between the 10 batches of Aurantii Fructus samples, 10 chemical compounds in the common peak were identified, at the same time, determined the contents of 10 compounds. Then, the further quality assessment of Aurantii Fructus was carried out by similarity evaluation combined with chemical pattern recognition technology. RESULTS The 22 common peaks were found in the reference fingerprint, 10 chemical compounds (narirutin, naringin, hesperidin, neohesperidin, meranzin hydrate, luteolin, meranzin, nobiletin, hesperetin, aurapten) were identified. The similarity of Aurantii Fructus from Citrus aurantium were >0.92 and <0.21 from ‘Chuluan’. Through the chemical pattern recognition technology, 24 batches of Aurantii Fructus were mainly divided into 3 categories, screened out 5 intimate components that caused the quality differences between samples, namely, neohesperidin, aurapten, hesperetin, narirutin, naringin. CONCLUSION The HPLC fingerprint method of different botanic origin Aurantii Fructus is simple, specific and accurate, combines with chemical pattern recognition can provide reference for quality control and quality standards improvement.