Objective To establish the HPLC fingerprint of Heleocharis dulcis and simultaneously determine the contents of chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, luteolin and jaceosidin, and to evaluate the quality of H. dulcis from different regions by chemical pattern recognition method, so that a reference can be provided for quality control of H. dulcis. Methods The fingerprint of H. dulcis was established on a ZORBAX SB C₁₈ (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) column using acetonitrile-0.1% phosphoric acid solution as the mobile phase with gradient elution. the “Chinese medicine chromatographic fingerprint pattern similarity evaluation system”(2012.130723 edition) was used for similarity evaluation, SPSS27.0 and SIMCA14.1software was performed for hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were utilized to evaluate the quality of H. dulcis from diverse origins. The five chemical constituents were identified and content determined by comparison with the reference substance, and the results were synthesized using chemical pattern recognition and entropy weighted TOPSIS method. Results A total of 15 common peaks were matched to 26 batches of H. dulcis HPLC fingerprints, and five components including chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, luteolin and jaceosidin were identified. The similarity of fingerprints was between 0.865 and 0.995. The 26 batches of H. dulcis were clustered into two classes by HCA. PCA analysis yielded a cumulative variance contribution of 83.283% for the three primary constituents. Four components, including luteolin and chlorogenic acid, were screened by OPLS-DA as the indicator components for the quality difference of H. dulcis from different regions. The mass fractions of chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, luteolin and jaceosidin in 26 batches of H.dulcis were 5.43—60.65 , 0.44—2.27, 1.65—6.46, 2.58—59.94 and 0.31—24.40 μg/g, successively. Both PCA and entropy weighted TOPSIS results indicated that samples from Hubei Province exhibited the best quality. Conclusion The established HPLC fingerprinting method is characterised by its stability, reliability, and reproducibility. which can be used for the quality evaluation of H. dulcis in combination with chemical pattern recognition, and provides a reference for the quality control and resource development of H. dulcis.

Heleocharis dulcis (Burm. f.) Trin. ex Henschel  /  fingerprint  /  chemical pattern recognition  /  chlorogenic acid  /  caffeic acid  /  ferulic acid  /  luteolin  /  jaceosidin  /  quality evaluation