Chemical fingerprint and quantitative analysis for the quality evaluation of Vitex negundo seeds by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with hierarchical clustering analysis.

A simple and efficient method was developed for the chemical fingerprint analysis and simultaneous determination of four phenylnaphthalene-type lignans in Vitex negundo seeds using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection. For fingerprint analysis, 13 V. negundo seed samples were collected from different regions in China, and the fingerprint chromatograms were matched by the computer-aided Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint of TCM (Version 2004A). A total of 21 common peaks found in all the chromatograms were used for evaluating the similarity between these samples. Additionally, simultaneous quantification of four major bioactive ingredients was conducted to assess the quality of V. negundo seeds. Our results indicated that the contents of four lignans in V. negundo seeds varied remarkably in herbal samples collected from different regions. Moreover, the hierarchical clustering analysis grouped these 13 samples into three categories, which was consistent with the chemotypes of those chromatograms. The method developed in this study provides a substantial foundation for the establishment of reasonable quality control standards for V. negundo seeds.