Abstract:

Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma (GRR, also named as white ginseng), Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma Rubra (GRR Rubra, also named as red ginseng), Ginseng Folium (GF) and Ginseng Rootlet (GR) products from Asian ginseng, one of the well-known Chinese traditional medicine for thousands of years, are now widely used around the world. Thus the comprehensive quality control is of paramount concern basing on the contents of the bioactive ginsenosides. A rapid, sensitive and reliable method of ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a photodiode array detection (UPLC-PAD) was developed for the quantitative analysis of the 12 ginsenosides in the four commercial ginseng products of Asian ginseng. The chromatography was performed on an ACQUITY UPLC^TM BEH C₁₈ column using a gradient elution with acetonitrile/water as the mobile phases. Method validation including calibration curves, accuracies, precisions, repeatabilities and recoveries was investigated. The contents of the 12 ginsenosides were determined in 20 GRR, 4 GF, 4 GR and 11 GRR Rubra samples. To evaluate the sample quality, chemometric methods including hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal components analysis (PCA) were engaged in evaluating the GRR, GRR Rubra, GF and GR products from Asian ginseng. The results showed that HCA and PCA can be considered as the attractive chemometric techniques in situations where high sample throughput and multiple analytes are required.

Key words: Asian ginseng, ginsenosides, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal components analysis (PCA), ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)