[Spectroscopic studies on different chemical composition between the shell and core of Radix Notoginseng]

Notoginseng (Sanqi) is one of the most important components of famous Chinese recipe (Yunan Baiyao) and possesses a wide variety of applications in clinical practice. It has been found that Sanqi of different size exhibits different curative effects. Such a phenomenon may be attributed to that the chemical constituent from shell region is different from that of core region. To prove the above-mentioned hypothesis, Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis), FTIR, fluorescence spectroscopy, together with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy (ESI-MS) were utilized to study the variation of chemical compositions from shell and core regions of Sanqi. The results demonstrate that the chemical compositions of Sanqi from shell and core regions are different. In summary, differences in chemical composition between Sanqi shell and core were manifested from versatile aspects. Such differences shed a light on the different curative effects of Sanqi.