[HPLC fingerprint of the components of Radix Angelicae Sinensis]

A chemical fingerprint method was developed for investigating the variance of constituents between the whole roots and prepared slices of Radix Angelicae Sinensis (the roots of Angelica sinensis) using HPLC. 19 Radix Angelicae Sinensis whole roots collected from 16 different habitats and 28 commerial drugs including 6 whole roots, 1 root head and 21 prepared slices were analyzed. The component fingerprint of Radix Angelicae Sinensis with 12 common peaks was established. Common peaks 2, 5 and 6 could not be detected in most of the prepared slice samples. Except peaks 11 and 12, all the other peaks in graphics of the prepared slice samples mostly showed lower responses than those of the whole root samples. The whole roots and prepared slices could also be divided into two groups based on the clustering analysis results done by SAS 8.2. Meanwhile, the Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint of TCM 2004 software was applied for data analysis. Except samples y-17, s-3, s-5 and s-6, the similarities of the whole root samples were over 0.973, while the similarities of the prepared slice samples were all below 0.969. All the results demonstrated that there was distinguished difference in chemical components between the whole roots and prepared slices of Radix Angelicae Sinensis. Our experiments suggested to maintain the active components, whole roots of Radix Angelicae Sinensis should be a better choice than prepared slices for medicine trade and the storage of Radix Angelicae Sinensis should be taken care of.