Selection of chemical marker for Cnidii Rhizoma by Gyeongbuk production area and harvest time using UPLC-QTOF/MS and multivariate statistical analysis techniques

Cnidii Rhizoma is a perennial herb belonging to the Umbelliferae family. Its origin is China, and it is distributed in Korea and Japan. It has been reported that phthalide and phenolic compounds are the main ingredients. To confirm changes in metabolites from Gyeongbuk production area and harvested time, metabolite profiling and multivariate statistical analysis techniques were performed. As a result, a total of thirty-two compounds including sixteen of phthalide, phenolic acid, three of coumarin, one of aromatic glycoside, flavonoid, and steroid, two of phenylpropanoid, and unknown compounds were identified. In addition, the s-plot model of Orthogonal Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis was applied to identify chemical markers that contribute to discrimination between groups by production area and harvest time. The clustering tendency of the 2019 and 2020 groups in Gyeongbuk-Bonghwa and Gyeongbuk-Yeongyang areas was confirmed. The chemical markers which were peaks No. 4, 25, and 28 identified were phenolic acid, phenylpropanoid, and phthalide glycoside.