Novel characterization of Radix Angelicae Dahuricae before and after the sulfur-fumigation process by combining high performance liquid chromatographic fingerprint and multi-ingredients determination

Background: Harmful sulfur-fumigation processing method is abused during Radix Angelicae Dahuricae preparation. However, the analytical technique characterizing Radix Angelicae Dahuricae before and after the sulfur-fumigation process is absent. Materials and Methods: The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique was adopted to develop methods combining finger-print analysis and multi-ingredients simultaneous determination for quality evaluation of Radix Angelicae Dahuricae before and after the sulfur-fumigation process. The chromatographic fingerprint method was established for qualitative analysis coupled with statistical cluster analysis basing on Euclidean distance. Additionally, a determination method was developed for quantitative analysis, which was able to assay the concentrations of the major coumarins including imperatorin, isoimperatorin, xanthotoxin, xanthotoxol, isoimpinellin, oxypeucedanin, and bergapten in Radix Angelicae Dahuricae simultaneously. The separations of the two methods were both achieved on a Hypersil octadecylsilyl C ₁₈ column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) at 35°C under different strategic gradient elution programs. The detection wavelength was set at 254 nm all the time. Method validation data indicated that the methods were both reliable and applicable. They were then used to assay different Radix Angelicae Dahuricae samples collected from good agricultural practice (GAP) bases and local herbal markets. Results: The successful application demonstrated that the combination of HPLC fingerprint and simultaneous quantification of multi-ingredients offers an efficient approach for quality evaluation of Radix Angelicae Dahuricae before and after the sulfur-fumigation process. Conclusion: In order to discriminate Radix Angelicae Dahuricae before and after the sulfur-fumigation process, oxypeucedanin, and xanthotoxol were the most sensitive biomarkers and should be determined.