Comparative chemical and statistical analysis of cultivated and wild Radix Scutellariae

Radix Scutellariae has been widely used to hasten the process of heat clearing and dampness drying in traditional Chinese medicine. The resource of wild Radix Scutellariae is scarce; an increasing amount of cultivated Radix Scutellariae has become available in the market. To determine the clinical effects of Radix Scutellariae, we conducted a comparative analysis of the chemical compositions of cultivated and wild Radix Scutellariae. An HPLC fingerprint method was developed to determine simultaneously the amounts of baicalin, baicalein, and wogonin, which have been identified as active compounds in Radix Scutellariae. Chinese pharmacopoeia methodology was also applied to measure the ethanolic extract content of the wild and cultivated samples. Although the cultivated and wild Radix Scutellariae have similar concentrations of baicalein and wogonin, the concentrations of baicalin and ethanolic extracts are higher in the cultivated samples (i.e., 15.14% ± 1.11% and 56.90% ± 2.83%, respectively, compared to 11.17% ± 1.11%, and 44.16% ± 2.02%, respectively, in the wild Radix Scutellariae). Data from fingerprint analysis were statistically analyzed using the decision tree and hierarchical cluster methods. The study was carried out with 58 samples. Thus, the current study provides significant guidelines for distinguishing cultivated and wild Radix Scutellariae.