Ultra-performance liquid chromatography fi ngerprinting for quality control of Phragmitis rhizoma (Lugen) produced in Baiyangdian

Objective: To establish an ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) fi ngerprinting method for quality control of Phragmitis rhizoma from Baiyangdian. Materials and Methods: Ultrasonic extraction with 70% methanol was performed on 10 samples of P. rhizoma collected from 10 different villages in Baiyangdian. The sample solutions were analyzed by Waters UPLC equipped with the ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 column and photodiode array (PDA) detector, and gradient eluted with acetonitrile/water as the mobile phase. The fl ow rate was set to 0.1 mL/min; the column temperature was set to 25°C; and the detection wavelength was set to 285 nm. Results: The chromatograms of the 10 samples showed 27 common peaks, of which one was identifi ed as the ferulic acid standard. The similarity indexes were all above 0.82. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed that the constituents and their quantities differed according to the diameter of the original plant, which is related to its age. Conclusion: The UPLC fi ngerprinting method had the advantages of being fast, accurate, and highly effi cient; this indicated that it can be used for quality control of P. rhizoma produced in Baiyangdian. Also, the relation between the quality and diameter/age of the plant needs to be further investigated.