The antioxidant-activity-integrated fingerprint: An advantageous tool for the evaluation of quality of herbal medicines

The activity-integrated fingerprints of Danshen injections have been established by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with chemiluminescence detection (HPLC–CL) according to their antioxidants activity scavenging hydrogen peroxide. The authentication and validation of the activity-integrated fingerprints were performed. Then, a data-level information fusion method was employed to capture the chemical and antioxidant information encoded in HPLC–CL fingerprints. Finally, based on the fusion results, the quality of different batches of Danshen injections samples were further evaluated by similarity measure. In comparison with conventional fingerprints, the activity-integrated fingerprints, which simultaneously contained the chemical characteristics and antioxidant activities of constitutions could comprehensively and properly reveal the quality characteristics of the Danshen injections. In conclusion, the antioxidant-activity-integrated fingerprints were suitable for quality control of Danshen injections. This study could clearly demonstrate that the activity-integrated fingerprint was a powerful and meaningful tool to comprehensively improve the quality control of complex herbal medicines.