Geographical traceability of propolis by high-performance liquid-chromatography fingerprints

A rapid fingerprint method was developed for investigating and inferring geographical origin of Chinese propolis by using high performance liquid chromatography–ultraviolet detection (HPLC–UV). 120 samples were analyzed from 17 different locations of 10 provinces of China in this study. In the HPLC chromatograms, eight major compounds were identified as flavonoids, including rutin, myricetin, quercetin, kaempferol, apigenin, pinocembrine, chrysin and galangin. Both correlation coefficient of similarity in chromatograms and relative peak areas of characteristic compounds were calculated for quantitative expression of the HPLC fingerprints. Our results revealed that the presence or absence of specific peaks and similarity evaluation in simulative mean chromatograms among different regions could efficiently identify and distinguish Chinese propolis from different geographical origins.