Fingerprint studies of Radix scutellariae by capillary electrophoresis and high performance liquid chromatography

Two methods based on capillary electrophoresis (CE) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) are described to establish fingerprints of Radix Scutellariae simultaneously. In order to choose an appropriate extraction method, Radix Scutellariae samples extracted by different methods were determined by HPLC. The contents of baicalin, the quality marker of Radix Scutellariae, as well as the number of peaks in the chromatograms were determined to evaluate the extraction methods. 10 batches of Radix Scutellariae collected from different regions in China were applied to establish the fingerprints. Eleven common peaks were isolated within 12 min by CE. The Fingerprints obtained with HPLC consisted of 14 common peaks within 40 min. The two proposed methods demonstrated good stability and reproducibility with RSD less than 4% for relative migration time in CE and retention time in HPLC. Finally, the data from the 10 batches of Radix Scutellariae by CE and HPLC were all processed with two kinds of mathematical methods including correlation coefficient and the included angle cosine. The fingerprints of Radix Scutellariae established with CE and HPLC are suitable to identify and differentiate samples by geographical origin and can used for quality control.