To evaluate the quality of honeyed Eriobotryae Folium from different habitats and to select the best habitat of honeyed Eriobotryae Folium preferentially based on high performance liquid chromatography fingerprinting and chemical pattern recognition methods.

The detection was performed on an Acclaim^TM 120A C₁₈ (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) column with the mobile phase of 0.2% aqueous phosphoric acid (A)-acetonitrile (B) in gradient elution (0-5 min, 5%B; 5-6 min, 5%B→10%B; 6-20 min, 10%B; 20-50 min, 10%B→25%B; 50-60 min, 25%B). The volume flow rate was 1.0 mL·min^-1, the detection wavelength was 327 nm, the column temperature was 30 ℃, and the injection volume was 10 μL. The fingerprint profiles of 30 batches of honeyed Eriobotryae Folium from different habitats were established, and the fingerprint profiles combined with chemical pattern recognition were used to conduct comprehensive analysis of honeyed Eriobotryae Folium from different habitats. And cluster analysis(CA), principal component analysis (PCA) and comprehensive scoring were performed on honeyed Eriobotryae Folium from different habitats. Orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) was used to screen out the differential markers of honeyed Eriobotryae Folium from different habitats, and the habitats of honeyed Eriobotryae Folium were selected based on the comprehensive scoring.

The fingerprint profiles of 30 batches of honeyed Eriobotryae Folium were established. Twelve common peaks were identified, and 4 peaks were identified as neochlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid and auriculoside according to the control finger. CA divided the 30 batches of Honeyed Eriobotryae Folium samples into 6 categories. By PCA, 3 principal components were extracted, with a cumulative variance contribution of 84.315%. Six differential markers were obtained according to OPLS-DA, two of which were identified as chrysoside and chlorogenic acid. The better habitats of honeyed Eriobotryae Folium were screened as Sichuan, Guangxi, Guangdong and Shaanxi according to the comprehensive score.

Good precision, repeatability and stability results are obtained for fingerprinting and content determination. The combination of fingerprinting and chemical pattern recognition can comprehensively evaluate the quality of honeyed Eriobotryae Folium, and this method is stable and reliable, which can provide an effective reference basis for the habitat study of honeyed Eriobotryae Folium.