Monitoring the Consistency Quality and Antioxidant Activity of Da Hong Pao Teas by HPLC Fingerprinting

In the present study, a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed and validated for fingerprint profiling to evaluate the quality consistency of the Da Hong Pao tea. The chromatographic separation was performed on a USA Waters C18 column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm, Waters-XBridge Shield RP 18) with gradient elution. The column temperature was maintained at 30°C and the detection wavelength was set at 278 nm. The results demonstrated that the developed HPLC method achieved the desired linearity, precision, accuracy and limit of quantification. The fingerprints were developed and evaluated qualitatively using the ratio quantitative fingerprint method. The fingerprint analysis of the reference standards (caffeine, catechin, epicatechin, epigallocatechin, epicatechingallate, Epigallocatechingallate, theaflavin, theaflavin-3-gallate, theaflavin-3'-gallate and theaflavin-3, 3'-gallate) was found to reflect the content of the reference standards in the tea samples. Furthermore, the fingerprint-efficacy relationship among the components as well as the antioxidant activity in vitro were investigated. The selected samples showed good antioxidant activity based on the results. Our study demonstrated that the method of HPLC fingerprint profiling combine the antioxidant activity assay offering a reliable and efficient approach to quantitatively evaluate the quality consistency of the traditional Chinese medicine and other herbal preparations.