Implication of chemical pattern recognition method for quality control of Boerhavia diffusa L. in Indian markets...

This study demonstrates the use of Chemical Pattern Recognition (CPR) for identifying and evaluating the quality of Boerhavia diffusa L., (Punarnava) collected from wild and market sources across India. RP-HPLC fingerprinting revealed 13 common peaks, with β-ecdysone (P3) and boeravinone B (P12) identified as major phytomarkers at Rt of 3.97 ± 0.09 and 17.01 ± 0.12 min. The concentration of β-ecdysone and boeravinone B varied from 0.76 ± 0.02 to 12.64 ± 0.16 µg mg^-1, and 0.016 ± 0.002 to 5.52 ± 0.04 µg mg^-1. To assess sample authenticity, CPR was implemented using multivariate chemometric tools, including HCA, PCA and OPLS-DA. HCA classified the 21 samples into two distinct clusters. PCA and OPLS-DA, effectively distinguished authentic from non-authentic samples. Peaks P12 (boeravinone B), P9, P13, P7 and P3 (β-ecdysone) emerged as key quality markers. The study establishes a scientific approach for authentication and quality control of Punarnava.