Abstract: This study was aimed to establish the method of fingerprint analysis of chemical constituents of Euphorbia fischeriana by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and hence to control its quality. A mixed mobile phase of water and acetonitrile in a gradient elution mode was applied to determine diterpenoid compounds in 11 batches of E.fischeriana. The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min;the UV detection wavelength was 230 nm;the injection volume was 10 μL;the column temperature was 30 ℃.In addition,classification of different E.fischeriana samples was obtained using systematic cluster method.The analysis results of Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint suggested that the degree of similarity of the 11 batches of E.fischeriana samples were over 0.9.The HPLC chromatographic fingerprint of chemical constituents in the 11 batches of E.fischeriana was established,which showed 23 characteristic common peaks.The cluster analysis results indicated that the 11 batches of samples were classified into 2 classes,which was related to the origins of herbs.The developed HPLC method can be used to identify the origins of E.fischeriana herbs and to control its quality.

Key words: Euphorbia fischeriana, HPLC fingerprint, similarity, cluster analysis