Discrimination between steam processed and unprocessed Tubers of Gastrodia elata Blume by HPLC

In this study, to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of oral therapy using Gastrodiae Rhizoma, a new HPLC-PDA analysis method was developed for the simultaneous quantitation of the three major components: (1) gastrodin, (2) gastrodigenin, and (3) p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, in steam processed and unprocessed tubers of Gastrodia elata Blume. The clear separation of the three components was achieved on a C18 column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 ㎛) by gradient elution using water (including 0.1 % formic acid) and acetonitrile as the mobile phase. The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min, and the UV detector wavelength was set at 270 nm. The results demonstrate satisfactory linearity, recovery, precision, accuracy, stability, and robustness. The established HPLC-PDA method was applied to quantify three major compounds in 59 samples of G. elata Blume tubers. Finally, the steam processed and unprocessed tubers of G. elata Blume were successfully distinguished by pattern recognition analysis.