Overall qualitative and overall quantitative assessment of compound liquoric tablets using HPLC fingerprints

So far, there has been no advanced method to assure quality control for herbal drugs (HD) and traditional Chinese medicines (TCM). Because HD and TCM have been becoming more and more important for human health, it is necessary to set up an effective quality control method in terms of overall qualitative and overall quantitative analyses for them. In this study, the HPLC fingerprints (HPLC-FPs) of compound liquoric tablets (CLTs) were established to effectively control their qualities by using the dual qualitative and dual quantitative similarities (DQDQS) method, in which 13 batches of CLTs synthesized the referential FP (RFP) as a norm. Among the 26 batches of CLTs, 11 batches were assessed as completely qualified, the contents of 3 batches were obviously higher while the contents of other 6 batches were lower; the chemical constituents proportion distributed in 1 batch were not qualified and the remaining 5 batches were inferior. HD and TCM can be authentically evaluated by this method.