An LC Fingerprint Study of Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf

The aim of the paper was to establish an efficient and accurate fingerprint method for the identification and quality control of Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf. Methanol extracts of 43 samples of sclerotium and five samples of tegument were analysed by LC with photodiode array detection. Twenty common peaks were found and eleven of them were identified by mass spectrometry. The mutual pattern of 43 sclerotium samples was established and a Similarity Evaluation System and Principal Component Analysis were performed to analyze, differentiate and classify the samples. The method showed high precision, good repeatability and stability and all the peaks were well separated, so it can be used to assess the quality of P. cocos and to identify possible counterfeiting.