FurnitureofHongmu,creamofChineseculture,hasalonghistoryandenjoysgreatpopularityforitsclassicappearanceandelegantdisposition.Thetraditionalmethodoftheidentificationistoevaluatethemacroformandanatomicalfeatures.Inthispaper,anewmethodbasedonthedifferencesamongthechemicalcharacteristicsofbiologicalmetabolitesofsamplesisdeveloped.Intheresearch,highperformanceliquidchromatography(HPLC)fingerprintswereemployedtodiscriminatefourspeciesofHongmu,includingPterocarpusindicus,Pterocarpusmacarocarpus,Dalbergiamelanoxylon,andDalbergialouvelii.Theresultsshowedthat,accordingtotheretentiontimeandrelativepeakareaofdifferentcomponentsinwoodextracts,thedistinctioncanbeeasilymadebetweendifferentspecies.BasedontheHPLCfingerprints,similaritiesbetweensampleswereevaluatedbycorrelationcoefficients.Theresultsweregreaterthan0.81betweenthesamespecies,andlessthan0.21betweendifferentspecies,whichshowedweakcorrelationbetweendifferentspecies.Inordertoestimatetheoverallfeaturesofthefingerprints,hierarchicalclusteringandprincipalcomponentanalysis(PCA)wereusedandtheresultsshowedpronouncedclusteringeffectamongthesamespecies.TheinvestigationindicatedthatpatternrecognitioncouldaccuratelyreflectthesignificantdifferencesbetweendifferentspeciesofHongmu,andcanbeusedasareferenceforqualitycontrol.
