Comparison of the Contents of Anthraquinones Between Cultivated and Wild Rheum Palmatum

Objective To do some comparative study on the contents of anthraquinones between the cultivated and wild samples of Rheum Palmatum.MethodsA reversed-phase HPLC method was established for the determination of contents of aloe-emodin,rhein,emodin,chrysophanol and physcion in cultivated and wild Rheum Palmatum from different regions.The classification was carried out by using the Hierarchical clustering analysis.The correlation analysis was used to study the effect of altitude on the contents of anthraquinones.ResultsThe content range of aloe-emodin,rhein,emodin,chrysophanol and physcion in wild Rheum Palmatum were 0.29%~0.67%,0.47%~1.33%,0.25%~0.87%,0.55%~1.00%,0.06%~0.48%,respectively.The content range of aloe-emodin,rhein,emodin,chrysophanol and physcion in cultivated Rheum Palmatum were 0~0.07%,0~0.06%,0~0.15%,0~0.34%,0~0.08%,respectively.According to the result of classification,all samples collected were divided into two grades the cultivated and the wild.The result of correlation analysis showed that the altitude had significant influence on the contents of anthraquinones in Rheum Palmatum.ConclusionThe contents of aloe-emodin,rhein,emodin,chrysophanol and physcion in the wild Rheum Palmatum are higher than those in the cultivated Rheum Palmatum.with the increase of altitude,the contents of anthraquinones show the tendency of increase.