1Terahertz Technology Innovation Research Institute, Shanghai Key Lab of Modern Optical System, Terahertz Science Cooperative Innovation Center, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai Institute of Intelligent Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
2Department of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
3School of Pharmacy, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
4Shanghai Institute of Intelligent Science and Technology, Tongji University Shanghai, China
| Received 06 Jul 2020 |
Accepted 29 Oct 2020 |
Published 27 Jan 2021 |
Panax quinquefolium is a perennial herbaceous plant that contains many beneficial ginsenosides with diverse pharmacological effects. 24(R)-pseudoginsenoside F11 is specific to P. quinquefolium, a useful biomarker for distinguishing this species from other related plants. However, because of its nonconjugated property and the complexity of existing detection methods, this biomarker cannot be used as the identification standard. We herein present a stable 24(R)-pseudoginsenoside F11 fingerprint spectrum in the terahertz band, thereby proving that F11 can be detected and quantitatively analyzed via terahertz spectroscopy. We also analyzed the sample by high-performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. The difference between the normalized data for the two analytical methods was less than 5%. Furthermore, P. quinquefolium from different areas and other substances can be clearly distinguished based on these terahertz spectra with a standard principal component analysis. Our method is a fast, simple, and cost-effective approach for identifying and quantitatively analyzing P. quinquefolium.
