Application of chromatographic and chemometrics techniques to enhance chemical analysis of Sheng Mai San, Cinnamomi Cortex, Radix Ligustici Chuanxiong and other Chinese herbal medicines

In this research study, chromatographic studies together with chemometrics were applied for both qualitative and quantitative studies of TCMs including Sheng Mai San, Cinnamomi Cortex, RDLP and Radix Ligustici Chuanxiong. A single extraction method and one experimental condition for thin layer chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography were developed for Sheng Mai San analysis. Moreover, eighteen common components in the volatile oil of Cinnamomi Cortex were found and 16 of them were identified by the MS library (Wiley138 ) in the GC-MS study. Besides, a chromatographic fingerprint of Cinnamomi Cortex was established and the quality of Cinnamomi Cortex were categorized into three types according to their relative percentages of the active ingredient cinnamaldehyde by the principal component plot (PCA). In addition, near infrared diffuse reflectance (NIRR) was used to analyze the Cinnamomi Cortex. GC-MS method was employed as the reference method in the examination. The NIRR calibration equations obtained gave very good correlation with those of GC-MS method. It showed that it is good for future analysis of volatile oil of Cinnamomi Cortex samples by using the NIRR spectroscopy. In the use of preparative HPLC (PHPLC), some practical problems were found during the scale-up process. The pilot study of the collection of a TCM formulation, RDLP, explored the practical concerns in various aspects during scale-up relating to sample introduction, pump, column, detector, solvent recycler, fraction collector and rotary evaporator. Although PHPLC is an expensive method, the results obtained can be excellent. It is worth while to do so because TCM standards are rare and very expensive. Furthermore, PHPLC technique was applied to isolate the main constituents of Radix Ligustici chuanxiong. The multisimplex treatment with the use of the MultiSimplexRTM software was employed to optimize the experimental condition in HPLC analysis. In the n-hexane extracts of L. chuanxiong, five active components were isolated successfully in the PHPLC system and they are senkyunolide A, butylphthalide, neocnidilide, z-ligustilide and z-butylidienephthatide. All of them are good for qualitative purpose because of their significant in the chromatograms. They are good to serve as the standards for quantitative analysis.