Determination of Characteristic Volatile Component Fingerprint of Peucedanum praeruptorum Dunn at Different Harvest Periods Based on HS-GC-IMS

Background Peucedanum praeruptorum Dunn (PPD) is a Chinese herbal medicine with medicinal value. Clinical studies have shown that PPD has protective effects against wind-heat, cough, asthma, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Therefore, cultivation of PPD is becoming more common. However, it has been difficult to determine the optimal harvest period for botanical Chinese medicines such as PPD. Objectives Odor characteristics are directly related to the chemical components contained in traditional Chinese medicines. In particular, for traditional Chinese medicines such as PPD that are rich in volatile components, higher quality usually means more beneficial volatile components. The purpose of this study was to analyze changes in PPD volatile components across different harvest periods, and provide the basis for the identification of the ideal harvest period to ensure PPD quality. Methods We measured the volatile components of PPD at different harvest periods using HS-GC–IMS to characterize its volatile component fingerprint at different harvest periods. Results We identified 80 volatile components in PPD across five harvest periods, and combined complex heatmap and PCA methods distinguish the characteristics of the different harvest periods, and used ion mobility spectrometry to determine the volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which mainly included compounds such as olefins, esters, alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones, and determined that the abundance of volatile components reached a peak in December. Conclusions The fingerprint determination of characteristic volatile components based on HS-GC-IMS can distinguish PPD in different harvest periods. Highlights We used HS-GC–IMS to determine the characteristic fingerprint of volatile components from PPD across different harvest periods. This approach differs from past studies, which have determined the optimal harvest time of medicinal materials based on only the content of a single active ingredient.