Reliability evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine fingerprints combined with qualitative and quantitative analysis and antioxidant activity to comprehensively evaluate the quality of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium

Abstract

Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium (CRP) is a common flavoring agent used in cooking and beverages as well as in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). However, previous studies have mostly evaluated the quality of CRP in terms of the contents of its main components, and a complete set of quality control models for CRP is necessary. The optimal chromatographic conditions were firstly selected using the relative index of the chromatographic fingerprint (F_r). Equal-weighted ratio quantitative fingerprint method was used to assess HPLC fingerprinting (HPLC-FP) combined with UV fingerprinting (UV-FP) for 60 batches of CRP. The reliability parameter was used to assess the fingerprint dependability, and the resulting reliability was more than 0.85. Additionally, a multi-marker assay by the monolinear method was suggested to ascertain the content of hesperidin, nobiletin, and tangeretin, and the results of the t-test revealed that they were not statistically different from the calibration curve method. The relationship between fingerprinting and antioxidant capacity was established, and the results of HPLC-FP and UV-FP evaluations were integrated to avoid the limitation of a single method. In conclusion, this paper provides a comprehensive and reliable strategy for the quality evaluation of TCM.