A method for the quality evaluation of Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma (AMR) based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint, HPLC quantification, and chemical pattern recognition analysis was developed and validated. The fingerprint similarity of the 27 batches of AMR samples was 0.887-0.999, which indicates there was very limited variance between the batches. The 27 batches of samples were divided into two categories according to cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA). A total of six differential components of AMR were identified in the partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), among which atractylenolide I, II, III, and atractylone counted 0.003-0.045%, 0.006-0.023%, 0.001-0.058%, and 0.307-1.175%, respectively. The results indicate that the quality evaluation method could be used for quality control and authentication of AMR.
Keywords: Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma; chemical pattern recognition analysis; content determination; fingerprint; quality evaluation.