title: Potential quality evaluation method for Radix Astragali based on sweetness indicators.
abstract: Sweetness is a traditional sensory indicator used to evaluate the quality of the popular Chinese herb Radix Astragali (RA). RA roots with strong sweetness are considered to be of good quality. However, neither a thorough analysis of the component(s) contributing to RA sweetness, nor a scientific investigation of the reliability of this indicator has been conducted to date. In this study, seven kinds of sweetness components were identified in RA and a quality evaluation method based on these components was established and used to characterize the quality of 48 RA samples. The sweetness evaluation method of RA was first built based on the sweetness components, and a comprehensive evaluation index commonly used in quality control of RA was also derived, which was based on the contents of four indicators (astragaloside IV, calycosin glucoside, polysaccharides and extracts). After evaluating the correlation of these indexes the results showed that the level of sweetness exhibited a strong positive correlation with the proposed comprehensive index. Our results indicate that sweetness is one of the most important quality attributes of RA and thus provide a scientific basis for the utility of the sweetness indicator in quality assessment of this Chinese herb.
authors.affiliation: Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi University, No.92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. like@sxu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi University, No.92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. haifeng@sxu.edu.cn.|College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanxi University, No.92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. haifeng@sxu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Fanrong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi University, No.92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. lizhenyu@sxu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhenyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi University, No.92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. qinxm@sxu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xuemei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanxi University, No.92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. haifeng@sxu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Haifeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi University, No.92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. haifeng@sxu.edu.cn.|College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanxi University, No.92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. haifeng@sxu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.affiliation: Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi University, No.92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. haifeng@sxu.edu.cn.|College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanxi University, No.92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. haifeng@sxu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lizeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi University, No.92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. dugh@imm.ac.cn.|Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100050, China. dugh@imm.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Guanhua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Du
mesh_terms: D027885:Astragalus propinquus; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000737:chemistry*; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D013549:Sweetening Agents; C027492:Huang Qi