Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) for rapid determination of ginsenoside Rg1 and Re in Chinese patent medicine Naosaitong pill

• Fast analysis of ginsenosides in Chinese patent medicines using NIRS was studied.
• HPLC was used to determine the contents of ginsenoside Rg1 and Re.
• Two precise models were built for quantitative analysis.

Ginsenosides in plant samples have been extensively studied because protopanaxadiol saponins are ubiquitous in Chinese patent medicines, in which they can be used in promoting human health as the main active ingredients. A method for rapid determination of two ginsenosides (Rg1 and Re) in Naosaitong (NST) samples using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) is studied to determine the contents of ginsenoside Rg1 and Re in this work. Partial least square (PLS) regression was used for building the calibration models, and the effects of spectral preprocessing and variable selection on the models are investigated for optimization of the models. A total of 93 samples were scanned by NIRS, and also by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a diode array detector to determine the contents of ginsenoside Rg1 and Re. The calibration models for Rg1 and Re had high values of the coefficient of determination (R2) (0.9766 and 0.9764) and low root mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV) (0.0136 and 0.0104), and the values of the standard error of prediction set (SEP) are 0.00764 and 0.0103, which indicate a good correlation between reference values and NIRS predicted values. The overall results show that NIRS could be applied for the rapid determination of the contents of ginsenosides in Ginseng byproducts for pharmaceuticals that develop high-quality Chinese patent medicines.

Optimal models for rapid analysis of two ginsenosides (Rg1 and Re) in Chinese patent medicines by near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) were obtained using partial least square (PLS) regression with different spectral preprocessing methods.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide