简介：PolysaccharidesfromnumeroustraditionalChinesemedicineshavebeenprovenasthebioactiveingredientsandarehenceusedasthequalitycontrolmarkers.However,theassessmentcriteriaalwaysshowapoorspecificity,duetothelackofmaticcomparisonamongtheanalogousherbs.Inthepresentstudy,twosimilarmaterials,namelysea-tangleandsargassum,wereselectedasthemodelherbstodevelopmorespecificmethodsforqualitycontrol.Twowell-establishedmethods,determinationofthetotalpolysaccharidescontentandmonosaccharidescompositionanalysis,werebothemployed.Baseduponthequantitativeresults,theevaluationcriteriaofthepolysaccharidescontentsofnotlessthan2.0%and1.7%wereproposedforsea-tangleandsargassum,tively.NineidenticalmonosaccharidederivativesappearedontheHPLCchromatogramsofthehydrolysisandderivatizedsolutionsofthetwodrugs.Principalcomponentanalysisandorthogonalpartialleastsquaresdiscriminantanalysisusingthepeakareasofmonosaccharidesderivativesasthevariableswereperformed,andtheresultsindicatedthatmannuronicacidandxylosewiththeoppositeconcentrationsinthetwodrugswerethedifferentialcomponents.Adiscriminativecriterionusingthepeakarearatioofthesetwomonosaccharidesderivativeswasproposedforthequalitativeidentification.Inconclusion,amorespecificandquantitativequalitycontrolmethodwasdevelopedforsea-tangleandsargassum.