Panax quinquefolius L. is one of the most widely consumed and cultivated herbal medicines in the world. China and Canada are the two major producing countries. However, research on the ecotype distinction of P. quinquefolius from Canada has never been reported, meanwhile the quality of P. quinquefolius between China and Canada using nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) is limited. Here, we investigated the 1H NMR key signals and ecological factors from both nations, and the data were further analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The key signals were identified as sugar and methyl, which distinguished all the samples into 2 different ecotypes. This is the first report of ecotype division of P. quinquefolium worldwide. The results show quality variation of P. quinquefolium from different geographic areas, implying the ecological adaptation and biodiversity. Our findings also demonstrate the critical need for improving quality and quality standardization, appropriate ecological regionalization and promoting industrialized development of P. quinquefolium.
Key words: Ecotype, Quality control, P. quinquefolius, Chemometrics, 1H NMR
|
