HPLC fingerprinting and quantification of gentiopicroside（GPS） and loganic acid（LA） in Gentianae Macrophyllae Radix（GMR） crude drugs were developed in this study.The samples were separated on Zorbax SB-C_（18） column（250 mm×4.6 mm, 5μm） with a linear gradient of acetonitrile and 0.04%phosphoric acid.The HPLC flow rate was 1.0 mL/min and a UV absorption was measured at 230 nm.An orthogonal L9（3^4） test was applied for the optimization of sample extraction conditions,and an aliquot of GMR sample（g） was extracted with 15-fold of 50%ethanol（mL） for 30 min by sonication.Quantitative analysis showed that the content of GPS（14.05 mg/g-74.61 mg/g） in all samples was obviously higher than that of LA（1.13 mg/g-40.46 mg/g）. Based on the content ratio of GPS over LA（1.8-11.4）,samples originated from Gentiana macrophylla（with content ratio of GPS over LA≤4.3） could be distinguished from those from G.dahurica and G.dahurica var.gracilipes（with content ratio of GPS over LA≥4.8）.The principle components analysis of the HPLC fingerprints showed that samples originated from G.macrophylla and G.dahurica（including G.dahurica var.gracilipes） could be divided into two groups.This established HPLC-DAD method could be efficiently used for the species identification and quality control of GMR crude drugs.
