QUALITY EVALUATION ON PAEONIAE RADIX .1. QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS OF MONOTERPENE GLYCOSIDES CONSTITUENTS OF PAEONIAE RADIX BY MEANS OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY, COMPARATIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE EXTERNAL FIGURES, PROCESSING METHOD AND THE CULTIVATED AREAS

The constituents of monoterpene in Paeoniae Radix were analyzed by mea ns of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using hitherto elu cidated eight monoterpene glycosides, paeoniflorin 1, oxypaeoniflorin 2, benzoylpaeoniflorin 3, benzoyloxypaeoniflorin 4, galloylpaeniflorin 5, galloyloxypaeoniflorin 6, albiflorin 7 and lactiflorin 8 and a mon oterpene paeoniflorigenone 9. In sixty seven kinds of Paeoniae Radix c ollected in Japan, China, and South and North Korea those monoterpene constituents 1-9 were found to exist in the amounts of ranging 0.12-9. 61% 1, 0.06-10.8% 2, 0.02-0.79% 3, 0.24-0.47% 4, 0.25-2.53% 5, 0.05-2. 86% 6, 0.09-2.76% 7, 0.35-0.64% 8 and 0.01-0.49% 9 respectively. In ad dition, these results obtained by the quantitative analysis were discu ssed from the viewpoint of the external figures and processing methods .