[Quality control of Chinese herbal medicines with chromatographic fingerprints]

The applications of chromatographic fingerprint in the quality control of Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs), such as chemical fingerprint in the authentication of CHMs, chromatographic pharmacodynamics, biofingerprint and metabolic fingerprint in the efficacy evaluation of CHMs are reviewed. In recent quality control system of CHMs, chemical fingerprint has been a forceful technology in the authentication of CHMs, and chromatographic pharmacodynamics, biofingerprint and metabolic fingerprint have shown advantages in the efficacy evaluation of CHMs because of their correlations with pharmacological activities. Furthermore, the application of chromatographic fingerprint in safety evaluation of CHMs becomes more and more significant.