Background: Cuscuta spp. known as dodders, have been used as traditional medicines in eastern and
southern Asian countries for many disorders such as gastrointestinal,
respiratory, endocrine, skin and neurological diseases (Drug of mania).
Flavonoids are the main biologically active constituents in Cuscuta genus especially in C. chinensis. Our aim in this study was to identify
and discriminate between C. chinensis samples which were collected from
different hosts, by using the pattern recognition aided fingerprint analysis
and comparison of the content of four major flavonoids (hyperoside, rutin,
isorhamnetin, kaempferol). Material and methods: Samples were collected from
nine different plants in the same time and place, dried, grinded and extracted
with methanol (80%) by repeated maceration. Extractions were evaluated by high
performance liquid chromatography analysis and fingerprinting. Results: Beside
chromatographic fingerprint using similarity index, we compared the content of 4
major flavonoids (hyperoside, rutin, isorhamnetin, kaempferol) of C. chinensis samples on different hosts. Coclusion: The results showed that there
were significant differences between the content of four major flavonoids of
nine C. chinensis samples, but chromatographic fingerprint by similarity
index of more than 0.88, showed that the sample consistency was similar. So, it
was suggested that combination of chromatographic fingerprint and the content
determination of major flavonoids could be used to evaluate the quality control
of C. chinensis from different hosts.