Fingerprint analysis of Rhizoma chuanxiong by pressurized capillary electrochromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography.

Pressurized capillary electrochromatography (pCEC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were used simultaneously to establish fingerprints of Rhizoma chuanxiong. Ten batches of Rhizoma chuanxiong collected from different regions in China were used to obtain the characteristic pCEC and HPLC fingerprints using a standardized procedure of sample preparation and analysis. A total of 22 common peaks were isolated within 60 min by pCEC and 16 common peaks by HPLC within 65 min. The fingerprints of Rhizoma chuanxiong were then used to identify the raw herbs from different sources in China. The two proposed methods demonstrated good stability and reproducibility with RSD less than 5% for retention time in pCEC and in HPLC, respectively. Finally, the data from the analyses of 10 batches of Rhizoma chuanxiong by pCEC and HPLC were all processed with similarity analysis with two mathematical methods, correlation coefficient and the included angle cosine. The fingerprints of Rhizoma chuanxiong established with pCEC and HPLC are suitable to identify samples from different sources and can be used to control the quality of raw herbs. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.