Ultra-performance liquid chromatography fingerprint combined with chemometrics as an effective strategy for Dianbaizhu species discrimination

• Fingerprints of confusable seven Gaultheria species were established.
• Good precision, reproducibility and stability were achieved in method validation.
• Fingerprint and chemometric techniques were used for species discrimination.
• The results were basically in accordance with the traditional plant taxonomy.
• The effective strategy can mainly discriminated seven confusable species.

Dianbaizhu a folk medicine used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is made from different species of Gaultheria. The main species is Gaultheria leucocarpa var. yunnanensis but other species are being used as substitutes. The objective was to develop a precise and reproducible method to differentiate among these species. A method was developed by using ultra-performance liquid chromatography in combination with chemometric. The method was validated with relative standard deviations of less than 1.96%.

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