Abstract: A microwave digestion coupled with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method was established for the determination of heavy metal elements in Kalimeris indica from different habitats.The results were analyzed by principal component analysis and cluster analysis.Two principal factors were extracted and used to comprehensively evaluate heavy metal elements from 15 batches of K.indica. The comprehensive function was F=0.586F₁+0.414F₂, which resulted in the top three samples coming from Bozhou Chinese medicine market,Bozhou 2 and Xuancheng,respectively.The cluster analysis results showed that the contents of heavy metals were similar by habitats.The study indicated that ICP-MS was a quick,accurate,sensitive method to determine the contents of heavy metal elements in K.indica.

Key words: Kalimeris indica, heavy metal elements, principal component analysis, cluster analysis