Objective  To establish a ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) fingerprinting and multi-component quantitative determination method for Imperata cylindrica Rhizome before and after processing, and to conduct quality evaluation combined with chemometric analysis.

Methods  UPLC was employed to establish the fingerprint profiles of Imperata cylindrica Rhizome and Imperata cylindrica Carbonisata, respectively. Chemometric pattern recognition techniques were applied to screen the main differential components before and after the processing of Imperata cylindrica Carbonisata, followed by quantitative analysis of these components.

Results  A total of 11 common peaks were identified in the UPLC fingerprint of Imperata cylindrica Rhizome, while 16 common peaks were calibrated in that of Imperata cylindrica Carbonisata, with 5 components accurately characterized. Cluster analysis (CA), principal component analysis (PCA), and orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) effectively distinguished Imperata cylindrica Rhizome from its carbonized product. OPLS-DA screening revealed 11 major differential components, ranked by variable importance in projection (VIP) values in the following order: peak 16, peak 13, peak 3 (neochlorogenic acid), peak 14, peak 12 (coniferaldehyde), peak 15, peak 8, peak 7 (chlorogenic acid), peak 9 (4-coumaric acid), peak 6, and peak 2 (5-hydroxymethylfurfural). Quantitative determination results indicated that the contents of neo-chlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid, and 4-coumaric acid significantly decreased after carbonization of Imperata cylindrica, with respective ranges of 0.004 to 0.019 mg/g, 0.048 to 0.167 mg/g, and 0.031 to 0.155 mg/g. Conversely, the contents of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and coniferaldehyde increased remarkably, ranging from 1.070 to 7.280  mg/ g and 0.071 to 0.298 mg/g, respectively.

Conclusion  The quality evaluation method established by this research is stable and reliable, which can be applied to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of Imperata cylindrica Rhizome and Imperata cylindrica Carbonisata, providing a scientific reference for the quality assessment of these two medicinal materials.

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