Meng Wu¹, Xizhen Cheng¹, Yuling Zhang¹, Mingdong Si¹, Yuguang Zheng^{1, 2}, Huigai Sun^1,, Donglai Ma^{1, 3,}

Astragali radix (AR) is a famous traditional Chinese medicine in China. Different AR producing areas and different extraction methods will affect the internal quality of AR. To ensure the internal quality of AR sold in the market and explore the influence of its source and extraction method on the quality of AR, we proposed a method combining fingerprint and stoichiometry to identify AR. UPLC fingerprints of AR methanol extract (AME) and AR water extract (AWE) were established, and common peaks were found. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were carried out using stoichiometric methods, such as similarity analysis (SA), principal component analysis (PCA), and orthogonal partial least squares (OPLS-DA). The chemical composition of AME and AWE was analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF/MS. In addition, five compounds of AR were quantitatively determined, which provided accurate and useful data for quality evaluation.

astragali radix, UPLC-Q-TOF/MS, PCA, OPLS-DA