• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.293-299
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• 2006

By using high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detection, a simple and accurate chromatographic fingerprint method was developed for the identification of Radix Codonopsis (roots of Codonopsis) from different sources. Eighteen herbs of Codonopsis at different habitats in China, including roots from Codonopsis pilosula, Codonopsis pilosula var. modesta and Codonopsis tangshen were analyzed by the fingerprint. The amount of lobetyolin was calibrated, which was found to be more consistent in roots of Codonopsis pilosula as compared to that of Codonopsis pilosula var. modesta and Codonopsis tangshen. Having the fingerprint results, hierarchical clustering analyses were performed to classify the eighteen herbs into three groups: Codonopsis pilosula, Codonopsis pilosula var. modesta and Codonopsis tangshen. This clustering analysis agrees very well with the pharmacognostic identification result, and which could be used as a tool in the quality control of Radix Codonopsis.