Comparative Analysis of Volatile Constituents in Herbal Pair Atractylodes Macrocephala -Atractylodes Lancea and Its Single Herb

The volatile constituents in the single herb Atractylodes macrocephala (AM), Atractylodes lancea (AL) and their herbal pair(HP) were extracted by steam distillation. With temperature-programmed retention index for assistant identification, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (CC-MS) combined with heuristic evolving latent projections (HELP), was used to identify and analyze the volatile constituents comparatively. 29, 50 and 62 kinds of constituents of the essential oils were identified from AM, AL and its HP respectively, and the relative amount accounted for 95.93%, 97.44% and 97.47% of the total relative contents in order. There were 20 volatile constituents in common in single herb and HP, mainly including 2-(2-methoxyphenoxy) phenol, gamma-selinene, eremophilene, germacrene B, 3,7(11) -selinadiene, elixene, and so on. After the formation of the HP, 8 kinds of constituents in the single herb AM and 12 components in the AL were reduced, while 22 additional components increased in the HP. The new additional components mainly belonged to monoterpene with low boiling point, and they played an important role in the HP.