Abstract

Background: Granule products produced from medicinal herbs are gaining popularity. However, there have been few studies comparing the quality or efficacy of granules with those of herbal formulations. This study aims to compare commercially available notoginseng (Sanqi in Chinese) in both raw and granule forms by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and ultra-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (UPLC-PDA) using multivariate analysis. Methods: Aqueous extracts of the raw herb (collected from six different sources in China) and granule products (purchased in China, Taiwan and Australia) were re-extracted with methanol to remove water-soluble excipients. Five compounds (ginsenosides Rg1, Rg2, Rd and Rb1 and notoginsenoside NR1) in the methanolic extracts were quantified by TLC and UPLC-PDA. Multivariate statistical analysis using hierarchical component analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) was used to determine the similarities between the granule products and raw

The five marker compounds, notoginseng NR1 and ginsenosides Rg1, Rb1, Rd and Rg2, were purchased from Chengdu Biopurify Phytochemicals Ltd.