OBJECTIVETo compare the quality of cultivated and wild Anemarrhena Rhizome from Yi County (Xiling Zhimu) based on contents analysis of active constituents.

METHODSamples of cultivated Anemarrhena Rhizome from most townships of Yi County were analyzed and compared with wild ones. Six indexes belonged to three kinds active constituents of saponin, flavornoid and polysaccharide were adopted. HPLC-ELSD method with cholesterol as internal standard was adopted to determine the content of sarsasapongenin. HPLC-ELSD method was used to simultaneously determine the contents of anemasaponin C and Anemasaponin A III. Contents of neomangiferin and mangiferin were determined by HPLC-UV method. Total polysaccharide was determined by phenol sulfate method.

RESULTThe mean content of sarsasapongenin in cultivated Anemarrhena Rhizome samples is slightly lower than the wild. The mean contents of anemasaponin C and Anemasaponin A III in cultivated Anemarrhena Rhizome samples are higher than the wild. There is no notable difference of these three index between the cultivated and the wild. The cultivated Anemarrhena Rhizome samples have a lower content of neomangiferin and a higher content of mangiferin than the wild. While the total content of these two flavonoids have no notable difference. The cultivated Anemarrhena Rhizome samples have a higher content of total polysaccharide than the wild samples.

CONCLUSIONContents of active constituents in cultivated Anemarrhena Rhizome from Yi County (Xiling Zhimu) are not notably different with the wild Anemarrhena Rhizome. They have similar good quality as the wild ones.