Finger Printing and Quantitative Analysis of <i>Cuscuta chinensis</i> Flavonoid Contents from Different Hosts by RP-HPLC

Background: Cuscuta spp. known as dodders, have been used as traditional medicines in eastern and southern Asian countries for many disorders such as gastrointestinal, respiratory, endocrine, skin and neurological diseases (Drug of mania). Flavonoids are the main biologically active constituents in Cuscuta genus especially in C. chinensis. Our aim in this study was to identify and discriminate between C. chinensis samples which were collected from different hosts, by using the pattern recognition aided fingerprint analysis and comparison of the content of four major flavonoids (hyperoside, rutin, isorhamnetin, kaempferol). Material and methods: Samples were collected from nine different plants in the same time and place, dried, grinded and extracted with methanol (80%) by repeated maceration. Extractions were evaluated by high performance liquid chromatography analysis and fingerprinting. Results: Beside chromatographic fingerprint using similarity index, we compared the content of 4 major flavonoids (hyperoside, rutin, isorhamnetin, kaempferol) of C. chinensis samples on different hosts. Coclusion: The results showed that there were significant differences between the content of four major flavonoids of nine C. chinensis samples, but chromatographic fingerprint by similarity index of more than 0.88, showed that the sample consistency was similar. So, it was suggested that combination of chromatographic fingerprint and the content determination of major flavonoids could be used to evaluate the quality control of C. chinensis from different hosts.