Identification of Radix Bupleuri From Different Geographic Origins Using Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry and Support Vector Machine Algorithm.

The article focuses on developing an intelligent method to identify the geographic origin of Radix bupleuri, a traditional Chinese medicinal root, using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) combined with a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. The study found that while raw MALDI-TOF MS data showed high variability and overlap among samples from different regions, normalization and principal component analysis significantly improved classification accuracy. The optimized SVM model achieved an average recognition rate of 98.5% in distinguishing Radix bupleuri from four geographic origins, demonstrating the method's potential for objective and efficient quality control of traditional Chinese medicine. This approach offers a novel, data-driven tool for origin identification, though its current application is limited to Radix bupleuri.