Abstract: A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) fingerprints method was developed for the analysis of the chloroform extracts of Taxus wallichiana. The extracts were separated on an Eurospher 100 C18 column (250 mm×4 mm, 5 μm) with the gradient elution of methanol and water at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The detection wavelength was set at 232 nm, and the column temperature was 30 ℃. Under the same conditions, 10 batches of the chloroform extracts of Taxus wallichiana from different habitats were analyzed with the reference substance of 10-deacetyl baccatin III (10-DABIII). The 11 peaks were selected as the characteristic peaks, and the method of principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to analyze the fingerprints of the chloroform extracts of Taxus wallichiana. The results showed that there was an interrelated relationship between habitat and quality of Taxus wallichiana. The method has good repeatability and stability, and can be utilized as an approach for the quality control of Taxus wallichiana.

Key words: fingerprint, principal component analysis (PCA), Taxus wallichiana, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)