Evaluating quality consistency of Celosiae Cristatae Flos by four dimensional fingerprints combined with antioxidant activity

Abstract

Celosiae Cristatae Flos (CCF) has haemostatic and anti-dysentery properties, making it a natural medicine worthy of further development. However, there are few studies on it and most of them are based on high performance liquid chromatography. Consequently, there is a need to develop a comprehensive quality evaluation method based on multiple analytical techniques to reveal the composition of CCF. In this study, a combination of electrochemistry (EC), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and ultraviolet spectroscopy (UV) was used to provide a comprehensive analysis for CCF. Firstly, the characteristic parameters of the EC were analyzed and the quality of the CCF was initially assessed using systematically quantified fingerprint method (SQFM). Secondly, the antioxidant activity of CCF was analyzed and the IC₅₀ values were in the range of 0.0390–0.0442 g/mL indicating that the antioxidant activity of CCF was strong. A correlation between the electrochemical fingerprint (ECFP) and the antioxidant ability was also found. Finally, the coefficient of variation weighted mean algorithm (CVWM) calculated the weighting factors of the four fingerprints, which were used to integrate ECFP with DSC-FTIR-UV quantum fingerprint. S_f (macroscopic qualitative similarity) was between 0.972 and 0.992 and P_f (macroscopic quantitative similarity) was between 80.9 and 127.2 %, indicating that the 19 batches of CCFs met the basic quality requirements, but there were grade differences. This study developed a comprehensive quality control method to ensure the safety and efficacy of herbal medicines.