[Quality evaluation of commercial Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma Rubra based on multi-component quantitative analysis]

To comprehensively evaluate the quality of commercial Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma Rubra, 43 batches of commercial Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma Rubra were collected to determine the content of nine ginsenosides Rg_1, Re, Rb_1, Rk_3, Rh_4, 20(S)-Rg_3, 20(R)-Rg_3, Rk_1, and Rg_5 by high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC). The quality of the commercial Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma Rubra was evaluated by correlation analysis, principal component analysis, factor analysis, analysis of variance(ANOVA), and cluster heatmap analysis. The content determination indicated that the content of common ginsenosides in commercial Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma Rubra were higher while that of rare ginsenosides were lower. Multivariate statistical analysis revealed that ginsenosides Rg_1 and Rb_1 were significantly positively correlated with rare ginsenosides, and Rg_1, Rb_1 and rare ginsenosides played an important role in evaluating the quality of commercial Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma Rubra. In combination with the processing principle and current quality situation of Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma Rubra, it is recommended to improve the content limit of Rb_1 in the existing quality standards.