Objective To establish the HPLC fingerprint of water-soluble components for different habitat‑processed products of Fritillaria thunbergii, and evaluate the quality of F. thunbergii piece and Huibei from different origins. Methods Inertsil ODS-SP-C₁₈column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5.0 μm) was used with methanol (A)-water (B) as mobile phase for gradient elution. The detection wavelength was 260 nm, the column temperature was 25 °C, the volume flow rate was 1.0 mL/min, and the injection volume was 15 μL. The HPLC fingerprint was established and the similarity was analyzed. The chemical constituents were identified and quantitatively determined by comparing with the reference substances. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal components analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discrimination analysis (OPLS-DA) were used to evaluate the quality of F. thunbergii from different producing areas. Results A total of 15 common peaks were matched in the fingerprints of F. thunbergii piece and Huibei, and ten components were identified including peak 3-uracil, peak 5-hypoxanthine, peak 6-guanine, peak 8-thymine, peak 9-inosine, peak 10-guanosine, peak 11-adenine, peak 12-thymidine, peak 14-adenosine and peak 15-2-deoxyadenosine. The areas of 15 common peaks were further analyzed by HCA, PCA and OPLS-DA. The results can distinguish F. thunbergii piece and Huibei well. With VIP > 1 as the index, a total of eight differential components with large contribution rate were obtained, which were peak 3,7,10,5,12,14,6 and 8. Conclusion The established fingerprint and multi-component content determination methods of water-soluble components of F. thunbergii piece and Huibei are simple and reproducible, and can be used for the quality evaluation and quality control of different processing methods of F. thunbergii from different producing areas.

Fritillariae thunbergii piece  /  Huibei  /  fingerprint  /  water-soluble components  /  uracil  /  hypoxanthine  /  guanine  /  thymine  /  inosine  /  guanosine  /  adenine  /  thymidine  /  adenosine  /  2-deoxyadenosine