Fingerprinting analysis of fresh ginseng roots of different ages using ¹H-NMR spectroscopy and principal components analysis

Fingerprinting analysis of fresh ginseng according to root age was performed using ¹H-NMR spectroscopy and multivariate analysis techniques. Various peaks were detected in the aliphatic (0-3 ppm), sugar (3-6 ppm), and aromatic (6-9 ppm) regions of the ¹H-NMR spectra of the water extracts of fresh ginseng root. The use of principal components (PCs) analysis (PCA) for metabolomic profiling allowed the large ¹H-NMR data set obtained for various metabolites to be reduced to PC1, PC2, and PC3. Two dimensional score plots showed clear separations with these three components at different roots ages, and explained 89.6% of the total variance. Canonical discriminant analysis identified the ginseng roots at various ages from the NMR results with over 89.9% discrimination accuracy. These results indicate that the combination of ¹H-NMR and PCA provides a very promising tool for the authentication and quality control of fresh ginseng roots at different ages.