Study on HPLC Fingerprint of Lianhua Qingwen Capsule Based on Chemical Recognition Pattern Method

OBJECTIVE To establish the fingerprint of Lianhua Qingwen capsule(LHQW) with the HPLC method, and to evaluate the quality by combining with chemical pattern recognition method.

METHODS The chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent Zorbax SB-C₁₈(250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) column with 0.1% phosphoric acid(A)-acetonitrile(B) as the mobile phase for the gradient elution. The detection wavelength was set at 207 nm. The flow rate was set at 1.0 mL·min^–1 and the column temperature was 30 ℃. Similarity evaluation, hierarchical clustering analysis(HCA), radar plot analysis, principal component analysis(PCA), and orthogonal partial least-squares discrimination analysis(OPLS-DA) were used for the further assessment of 13 batches of LHQW samples.

RESULTS The fingerprint of LHQW was established with 40 common peaks, in which 10 common peaks were identified, and the similarities of 13 batches of LHQW samples were 0.947–1.000. By applying chemical pattern recognition methods such as HCA, and OPLS-DA, 13 batches of samples were classified into three clusters, and the results of classification were correlated with the production date. And 8 major chemical markers causing quality differences were screened.

CONCLUSION With good reproducibility and stability, this method could provide the reference for the quality evaluation of LHQW．