Quality Study of HuangqiGuizhiWuwu Decoction Based on Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography Fingerprinting, Chemical Pattern Recognition and Multi‐Component Quantitative Analysis

ABSTRACT HuangqiGuizhiWuwu decoction (HGWD) possesses a complex and diverse chemical composition, rendering the identification of its components challenging. In this study, the UPLC fingerprinting profile of HGWD was elucidated and a method of determining multiple components in HGWD was proposed. Common UPLC peaks were selected from 12 batches of HGWD, and the Chinese herbal chromatographic fingerprint similarity evaluation system (2012) was employed for similarity analyses. The components corresponding to the common peaks in HGWD were identified using UPLC‐Q‐TOF‐MS. Chemical analyses were conducted to evaluate the quality of different batches of HGWD and identify the primary components. The similarities of the UPLC fingerprint profiles of the 12 batches of HGWD were all > 0.98, with 15 confirmed common peaks and 12 identified components. The 12 batches of HGWD were divided into three categories, and OPLS‐DA was used to identify cinnamic acid and cinnamaldehyde as the characteristic components that caused quality differences. The five primary components of the HGWD, which included albiflorin, paeoniflorin, calycosin‐7‐O‐β‐D‐glucoside, cinnamic acid, and cinnamaldehyde, exhibited good linear relationships with average recovery rates and relative standard deviations. This study established a UPLC fingerprinting profile for HGWD and proposed a simple, feasible, sensitive, and reproducible content determination method. Moreover, our findings provide a robust foundation for the quality standardization of HGWD.