Chemical fingerprinting and quantitative analysis of two common Gleditsia sinensis fruits using HPLC-DAD

Gleditsiae Fructus Abnormalis and Gleditsiae Sinensis Fructus are obtained from different developmental stages of fruits from Gleditsia sinensis Lam. (Leguminosae). The possible interchangeable usage of the two fruits, however, has long been very controversial. Here, high performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection was developed to explore their chemical fingerprinting profiles. Besides, the amounts of aglycones of saponin compounds, echinocystic acid and oleanolic acid in both fruits were quantified. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in the content of aglycones from the two types of fruits. However, their chromatographic fingerprints showed distinct characteristics. Therefore, the interchangeable application of these fruits has to be taken with a specific precaution.