Analysis of Cnidium monnieri fruits in different regions of China

Application of multivariate data analysis has become a popular method in the last decades, mainly because it can provide information not otherwise accessible. The information includes classification, searching similarities, finding relationships, finding physical significance to principal components, etc. Fifty three Chinese medicinal herbs of eleven kinds of coumarins were collected and determined by HPLC. The results were studied by principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. It was showed that the samples could be clustered reasonably into different groups, which correspond with variation of regularity and distribution of coumarin of Cnidium monnieri fruits in different regions of China.