Flavonoids rather than alkaloids as the diagnostic constituents to distinguish Sophorae Flavescentis Radix from Sophorae Tonkinensis Radix et Rhizoma:an HPLC fingerprint study

SophoraeFlavescentisRadix(SophoraflavescensAit.,SFR)andSophoraeTonkinensisRadixetRhizoma(S.tonkinensisGapnep.,STR)aretwocommonlyusedtraditionalChinesemedicinesfromSophora(Leguminosae)plants,whicharebelievedtopossesssimilarbioactivecomponentswithentirelydifferentclinicalapplications.InordertofindoutthecharacteristicchemicalconstituentspotentiallyleadingtotheuniquemedicinalpropertiesclaimedforeachofthetwocloselyrelatedTCMs,anHPLCfingerprintmethodwasdevelopedforanalysesofthealkaloidandflavonoidconstituentsofSFRandSTR,respectively,whichwerefurtherevaluatedandcomparedthroughsimilaritycalculationandhierarchicalclusteringanalysis(HCA).Theresultsfromthepresentstudyshowedthatthealkaloidfingerprintsofthetwoherbsweresimilar,withmanycomponentsco-existinginbothdrugsandvariousbatchesofsamplesfromdifferentspeciesbeingmixedtogetherintheHCAdendrogram.However,theirflavonoidconstituentsweretotallydifferentwithspecificfingerprintsbeingyieldedforeachherb,andfurtherHCAanalysisshowedthatthetestedsamplescouldalmostbeclearlydividedintotwogroupsbasedontheiroriginsofspecies.TheresultsfromthepresentstudyindicatedthattheflavonoidconstituentscouldserveasthedifferentiallydiagnosticconstituentsofSFRandSTRandmightpotentiallyattributedtotheirdistincttherapeuticeffects.