OBJECTIVETo establish an effective method for the identification of Herba Epimedii.

METHODThe HPLC fingerprints of 8 officinal species including 5 species recorded in 'Chinese Pharmacopoeia', which are Epimedium brevicornu, E. sagittatum, E. pubescens, E. koreanum and E. wushanense, and the other 3 species, E. acuminatum, E. myrianthum and E. leptorrhizum, recorded in 'Guizhou Quality Criteria for Traditional Chinese Medical Material and Nationality Medical Material', and of other 24 species in genus Epimedium in China as well had been analyzed and some fingerprinting features for the identification had been pointed out.

RESULT AND CONCLUSIONThe fingerprinting features of E. koreanum are rather different from others and can be used for the species identification. There are some common fingerprinting features in the most samples of E. brevicornu, E. acuminatum and E. myrianthum, respectively, and these features are seldom found in the samples of other species. The HPLC fingerprints of E. pubescens and E. leptorrhizum appear steadily among all samples of the species respectively, but it is difficult to distinguish the spcecies from other species with the HPLC fingerprints only. The HPLC fingerprints of E. sagittatum and E. wushanense vary greatly within the species. It is also showed that the quality of Herba Epimedii varied significantly according to the HPLC features.