Identification of Panax notoginseng origin using terahertz precision spectroscopy and neural network algorithm

Panax notoginseng (P. notoginseng), a Chinese herb containing various saponins, benefits immune system in medicines development, which from Wenshan (authentic cultivation) is often counterfeited by others for large demand and limited supply. Here, we proposed a method for identifying P. notoginseng origin combining terahertz (THz) precision spectroscopy and neural network. Based on the comparative analysis of four qualitative identification methods, we chose high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and THz spectroscopy to detect 252 samples from five origins. After classifications using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) model, we found that the performance of THz spectra was superior to that of HPLC. The underlying mechanism is that there are clear nonlinear relations among the THz spectra and the origins due to the wide spectra and multi-parameter characteristics, which makes the accuracy of five-classification origin identification up to 97.62%. This study realizes the rapid, non-destructive and accurate identification of P. notoginseng origin, providing a practical reference for herbal medicine.