Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex (PCC) and Phellodendri Amurensis Cortex (PAC) are\nincreasingly being used as traditional herbal medicines, but they are often mistaken for each other.\nIn this study, the fingerprints of PCC from six different geographical sources were obtained by\nhigh-performance liquid chromatography, and multivariate chemometric methods were used for\ncomprehensive analysis. Two unsupervised pattern recognition models (principal component analysis\nand hierarchical cluster analysis) and a supervised pattern recognition model (partial least squares\ndiscriminant analysis) were established on the basis of the chemical composition and physical traits of\nPCC and PAC. PCC and PAC were found to be distinguishable by these methods. The PCC category\nwas divisible into two categories, one with more crude cork and a maximum thickness of ~1.5 mm,\nand the other with less net crude cork and a maximum thickness of 0.5 mm. According to the\nmodel established by partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), the important chemical\nmarker berberine hydrochloride was obtained and analyzed quantitatively. From these results\ncombined with chemometric and content analyses, the preliminary classification standards for\nphellodendron were established as three grades: superior, first-order and mixed. Compared with\nthe traditional identification methods of thin layer chromatography identification and microscopic\nidentification, our method for quality evaluation is relatively simple. It provides a basis and reference\nfor identification of PCC and enables establishment of grade standards. It also could be applied in\nquality control for compound preparations containing PCC.
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