OBJECTIVETo establish the HPLC fingerprint for Halenia elliptica herbs, a traditional Tibetan medicine, in order to study constituents contained in H. elliptica from different habitats and compare their differences.

METHODHPLC analysis was made on a Welchrom-C18 (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm) with water and acetonitrile as mobile phase. The wavelength was detected as 265 nm, the flow rate was 1.0 mL x min(-1), and the column temperature was 40 degrees C. The software for chromatographic fingerprint was applied to analyze the similarity. And principal component analysis was conducted.

RESULTTwelve common chromatographic peaks were identified by fingerprint, showing a low similarity in constituent and variety. The significant difference in the proportion between xanthones and aglycones in each batch of herbs indicated no notable correlation between constituent characteristics and geographic locations of habitats.

CONCLUSIONThe method is so simple, exclusive, stable and highly repeatable that it can provide reference for identification and quality assessment of H. elliptica herbs.