Comprehensive quality evaluation of Codonopsis Radix using HPLC fingerprinting, quantitative analysis, and chemometrics analysis

≥ 0.9998) within the tested range, and the mean recoveries ranged from 99.46% to 101.51%. A common fingerprint, consisting of 13 characteristic peaks, was established for CR samples from different production areas in China. HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS was used to further identify the common peaks in the fingerprint. Various chemometrics analyses, including similarity analysis (SA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), were employed to classify the samples. Among these methods, OPLS-DA was particularly effective in distinguishing CR samples of different plant sources. The results demonstrate that the established method is effective for the comprehensive quality evaluation of CR, providing a reliable approach for its quality control and standardization.