Comparison of the roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Danshen) and its variety S. miltiorrhiza Bge f. Alba (Baihua Danshen) based on multi-wavelength HPLC-fingerprinting and contents of nine active components

The dried root of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Danshen in Chinese, ZHDS) is a very commonly used herbal medicine with purple flowers, and the dried root of S. miltiorrhiza Bge f. Alba (Baihua Danshen in Chinese, BHDS) with white flowers is a variety of ZHDS that is also used in clinics in some areas of China. Their authentication has always been a challenging task due to their similar morphological characteristics and ingredients. In the present study, an effective method for identifying BHDS and ZHDS based on multi-wavelength HPLC-fingerprinting chromatographic analysis and chemometric methodology was established. Peak-rich wavelengths (203, 270 and 281 nm) were combined to build a multi-wavelength fingerprint for each sample. Simultaneously, single-wavelength fingerprinting at 281 nm and content determination of nine active compounds were carried out. The results showed that a classification model between ZHDS and BHDS based on multi-wavelength fingerprint profiling was better than that on single-wavelength, and their discrimination became more feasible. The difference in components was not directly revealed, but latent information was revealed by PCA and PLS-DA. There were no significant differences in the contents of the nine main components (danshensu, caffeic acid, rosmarinic acid, lithospermic acid, salvianolic acid B, dihydrotanshinone I, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I and tanshinone IIA). The results suggest that BHDS and ZHDS are chemically distinct and need to be evaluated for clinical applications.