Discrimination of cinnamon bark and cinnamon twig samples sourced from various countries using HPLC-based fingerprint analysis

A simple and efficient HPLC method was developed to evaluate the quality of traditional herbal medicines made from cinnamon bark (CB) and cinnamon twig (CT). Seven major bioactive ingredients in 56 samples (24 CB and 32 CT) collected from China, Vietnam, and Indonesia were separated and quantified. The method was validated following the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines. A fingerprint analysis method to discriminate between CB and CT using major component content levels was developed. The discrimination process included the use of similarity indices and partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Classification accuracy by the PLS-DA method was about 98%. The pattern analysis method was specific and could be readily used for the comprehensive evaluation of cinnamon samples. Therefore, an HPLC fingerprint in combination with pattern analysis provides a very flexible and reliable method for quality assessment of herbal drugs.