Study on Changes of Chemical Components Between Crude and Processed Arctii Fructus Based on HPLC Fingerprints

Objective To establish HPLC fingerprints of crude and processed Arctii Fructus, analyze and compare their chemical constituents, and fi nally reveal the changes of their chemical constituents after processing of Arctii Fructus. Methods The analyses were performed by using HPLC with the mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile- 0.2% aqueous formic acid. The fl ow rate was 1.0 ml · min-1 and the column temperature was maintained at 30 ℃. The detection wavelength was set at 286 nm, and the injection volume was 20 μl with gradient elution. The established chromatographic fingerprints of crude and processed Arctii Fructus were evaluated by similarity analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. Results The precision, repeatability, and stability of the established chromatographic fingerprint method of crude and processed Arctii Fructus were good. The similarities of HPLC fi ngerprints of crude and processed Arctii Fructus were all excellent and ten peaks were selected as the common characteristic peaks of HPLC fi ngerprints of crude and processed Arctii Fructus, respectively. Some of the common characteristic peaks were identifi ed by comparison with reference substances, and the contents of some chemical constituents varied obviously before and after processing. Conclusion The established HPLC fi ngerprints of crude and processed Arctii Fructus can be used to distinguish crude and processed Arctii Fructus. There are signifi cant differences on the contents of some main chemical constituents observed between crude and processed Arctii Fructus.