Direct differentiation of herbal medicine for volatile components by a multicapillary column with ion mobility spectrometry method

Abstract

In this work, a headspace system coupled to a gas chromatographic column and ion mobility spectrometry was applied as a screening system to differentiate the crude and processed "atractylodis macrocephalae rhizoma" samples. The obtained ion mobility data were consecutively processed by principal component analysis and Radar fingerprint chart methods. From the principal component analysis for the initial solution to original variables, the two principal components accounted for 68 and 13% of the total variance, respectively. The established method was proven to be valuable for classification, discrimination between herbal medicines from different processing procedures.