Development of HPLC fingerprint for species differentiation and quality assessment of Rhizoma Smilacis Glabrae

Rhizoma Smilacis Glabrae (RSG) is a commonly used herbal material in functional food and Traditional Chinese Medicine. A HPLC chromatographic fingerprint was developed for its quality control and species differentiation. Nine peaks were found in the chromatogram of RSG and all these peaks were identified by diode array detection and electrospray ionization-MS/MS: 5-O-caffeoylshikimic acid, taxifolin, engeletin, isoengeletin, trans-resveratrol, astilbin and its three stereoisomers. Six of these constituents were consistently found in 18 batches of samples. The standard fingerprint of RSG was generated by mean simulation of all tested samples. Using the standard fingerprint, RSG could be easily differentiated from Rhizoma Smilacis Chinae and Rhizoma Heterosmilacis, the two species that can be confused with RSG.