Acta Pharm. 68 (2018) 87-96

 

full paper

Original research paper

 

Distinguishing Smilax glabra and Smilax china rhizomes by flow-injection mass spectrometry combined with principal component analysis

JIAN LIANG, MENG ZHOU, LIN-YU LI, JI-CHENG SHU, YONG-HONG LIANG, FENG-QIN LI, LI XIONG and HUI-LIAN HUANG

ocean719@163.com

1 Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Nanchang, 330004, China

2 Jiangxi Province Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Nanchang, 330029, China

Accepted October 25, 2017

Published online November 14, 2017

 

Flow-injection mass spectrometry (FIMS) coupled with a chemometric method is proposed in this study to profile and distinguish between rhizomes of Smilax glabra (S. glabra) and Smilax china (S. china). The proposed method employed an electrospray-time-of-flight MS. The MS fingerprints were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) with the aid of SIMCA software. Findings showed that the two kinds of samples perfectly fell into their own classes. Further predictive study showed desirable predictability and the tested samples were successfully and reliably identified. The study demonstrated that the proposed method could serve as a powerful tool for distinguishing between S. glabra and S. china.

 

Keywords: Smilax glabra, Smilax china, rhizome, flow injection, mass spectrometry, PCA, OPLS-DA