Advanced applications of spectral technology combined with chemometrics in rapid quantitative analysis and holistic quality evaluation of Cortex Fraxini

Quality of Cortex Fraxini is closely related to its clinical efficacy and drug safety. Traditional quality assessment methods are either non-objective or time-consuming. It is imperative to establish a rapid method for quality detection and evaluation of Cortex Fraxini . In this study, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) combined with chemometrics were used for rapid quantitative analysis of the main active components in Cortex Fraxini . Partial least squares regression (PLSR) combined with variable select by competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) algorithm gave rise to good predictions of the content of the three active components with R 2 values greater than 0.98. Furthermore, the quality evaluation results of Cortex Fraxini cannot be simply derived from data on the content of active ingredients. This study used technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) method and consistency analysis to evaluate the quality of Cortex Fraxini from five geographical origins. Two methods respectively realized the quality superiority ranking and quality consistency grading of Cortex Fraxini samples. The evaluation results showed that Cortex Fraxini derived from SN had the best performance in quality and was consistent with the standard of genuine regional herbs. This study introduces an effective technique for swift identification of the primary active compounds in Cortex Fraxini , as well as for an overall assessment of its quality. The combination of spectroscopic techniques and chemometrics provides a rapid and efficient method for the quality analysis of Cortex Fraxini .