Quality evaluation of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium by supercritical fluid chromatography with chemical pattern recognition

An efficient and rapid supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) method was established for the analysis of flavonoids in Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium (CRP), the best conditions were obtained by optimizing the parameters of the SFC method. The peak area obtained by SFC analysis of CRP samples, combined with chemical pattern recognition, was used to establish a model to evaluate the quality of Guang Chenpi (GCP) and Chenpi (CP) in CRP. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) proved to be an excellent method that can accurately distinguish GCP from CP. The PLS-DA model was established by selecting the training set, and the characteristic components (Didymin and Hesperidin) were screened out to further establish the model, and the testing sets were brought into the model for verification, indicating that the model established based on the peak areas is reliable, and two quality markers (Narirutin and Neohesperidin) were found to distinguish between Xinhui and Non-Xinhui in GCP based on the content determination. In conclusion, the combination of SFC and chemical pattern recognition for the quality evaluation of CRP has great potential.