Abstract:Objective To provide a reference for quality control of fineleaf Schizonepeta herb from different producing areas based on fingerprint, cluster analysis, and principal component analysis. Methods High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to analyze the quality of fineleaf Schizonepeta herb, and the data obtained were analyzed by the chromatographic fingerprint similarity evaluation system of traditional Chinese medicine to establish the fingerprint of fineleaf Schizonepeta herb. SPSS 23.0 was used for cluster analysis and principal component analysis, and all data were used to evaluate the quality of fineleaf Schizonepeta herb from different producing areas. HPLC was performed on a SinoChrom ODS-BP column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm) with a mobile phase of acetonitrile-0.05% aqueous phosphoric acid solution for gradient elution, at a detection wavelength of 283 nm, a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, a column temperature of 30 ℃, and an injection volume of 20 μL. Results A total of 28 peaks of the HPLC fingerprint of fineleaf Schizonepeta herb were determined to be common peaks, and apart from the samples from Henan Luyi and Sichuan Zigong with a similarity of below 0.9, all the other 21 batches had a similarity of 0.930-0.982. The cluster analysis showed that the medicinal material of fineleaf Schizonepeta herb was classified into Bozhou fineleaf Schizonepeta herb and fineleaf Schizonepeta herb from other producing areas including Sichuan, Henan, and Hebei. The principal component analysis showed that the top six principal components had a cumulative contribution rate of 88.247% and could be used for the comprehensive analysis of fineleaf Schizonepeta herb from different producing areas. Conclusion The comprehensive analysis shows that fineleaf Schizonepeta herb from Anhui and Hebei has relatively good quality.