A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography method coupled with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) was developed for the quality control of Phellodendri amurensis cortex (PAC), the quality control included the simultaneous determination of seven major constituents, namely phellodendrine, magnoflorine, jatrorrhizine, palmatine, berberine, obaculactone and obacunone. The chromatographic separation was accomplished on a Diamonsil-C18 column (4.6 mm × 200 mm, 5 μm) with acetonitrile and 0.1% phosphoric acid (0.02 mol sodium dihydrogen phosphate per liter) by linear gradient elution. The established method was successfully validated by acceptable linearity, limits of detection and quantitation, precision, repeatability, stability and accuracy. The HPLC-DAD fingerprint chromatograph under 220 nm consisting of 21 peaks was constructed for the evaluation of the 11 batches of PAC. The HPLC fingerprints were analyzed by similarity analysis, hierarchical clustering analysis and principal component analysis. The results indicated that the combination of multicomponent determination method and chromatographic fingerprint analysis could be employed for the quantitative analysis and identification of PAC, as well as pharmaceutical products containing this herbal material.
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