title: Novel characterization of Radix Angelicae Dahuricae before and after the sulfur-fumigation process by combining high performance liquid chromatographic fingerprint and multi-ingredients determination.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Harmful sulfur-fumigation processing method is abused during Radix Angelicae Dahuricae preparation. However, the analytical technique characterizing Radix Angelicae Dahuricae before and after the sulfur-fumigation process is absent.
  
  
  METHODS
  The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique was adopted to develop methods combining finger-print analysis and multi-ingredients simultaneous determination for quality evaluation of Radix Angelicae Dahuricae before and after the sulfur-fumigation process. The chromatographic fingerprint method was established for qualitative analysis coupled with statistical cluster analysis basing on Euclidean distance. Additionally, a determination method was developed for quantitative analysis, which was able to assay the concentrations of the major coumarins including imperatorin, isoimperatorin, xanthotoxin, xanthotoxol, isoimpinellin, oxypeucedanin, and bergapten in Radix Angelicae Dahuricae simultaneously. The separations of the two methods were both achieved on a Hypersil octadecylsilyl C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) at 35°C under different strategic gradient elution programs. The detection wavelength was set at 254 nm all the time. Method validation data indicated that the methods were both reliable and applicable. They were then used to assay different Radix Angelicae Dahuricae samples collected from good agricultural practice (GAP) bases and local herbal markets.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The successful application demonstrated that the combination of HPLC fingerprint and simultaneous quantification of multi-ingredients offers an efficient approach for quality evaluation of Radix Angelicae Dahuricae before and after the sulfur-fumigation process.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In order to discriminate Radix Angelicae Dahuricae before and after the sulfur-fumigation process, oxypeucedanin, and xanthotoxol were the most sensitive biomarkers and should be determined.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese Materia Medica, College of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; National First-Class Key Discipline for Science of Chinese Materia Medica, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; Nanjing Haichang Chinese Medicine Group Corporation, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese Materia Medica, College of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; National First-Class Key Discipline for Science of Chinese Materia Medica, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis and Metabolomics, Jiangsu Province Academy of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Songlin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese Materia Medica, College of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiaoqing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese Materia Medica, College of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yajing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.affiliation: Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; Nanjing Haichang Chinese Medicine Group Corporation, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Kunming
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese Materia Medica, College of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hongyue
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese Materia Medica, College of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; National First-Class Key Discipline for Science of Chinese Materia Medica, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People's Republic of China ; Nanjing Haichang Chinese Medicine Group Corporation, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Baochang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cai
keywords: Coumarins; Radix Angelicae Dahuricae; fingerprint analysis; high performance liquid chromatography; multi-ingredients simultaneous determination; sulfur-fumigation process