The quality assessment and discrimination of Panax herbs are very challenging to perform due to the complexity and variability of their chemical compositions. An integrated strategy was established using UHPLC-Q-Exactive/HRMS and HPLC-ESI-MS/MS to achieve an accurate, rapid, and comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analysis of Panax japonicas (PJ), Panax japonicus var. major (PM), and Panax zingiberensis (PZ). Additionally, discrimination among the three species was explored with partial least squares–discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and orthogonal partial least squares–discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) score plots. A total of 101 compounds were plausibly or unambiguously identified, including 82 from PJ, 78 from PM, and 67 from PZ. Among them, 16 representative ginsenosides were further quantified in three herbs. A clear discrimination between the three species was observed through a multivariate statistical analysis on the quantitative data. Nine compounds that allowed for discrimination between PJ, PM, and PZ were discovered. Notably, ginsenoside Rf (G-Rf), ginsenoside F3 (G-F3), and chikusetsu saponin IV (CS-IV) were the three most important differential compounds. The research indicated that the integrated LC-MS-based strategy can be applied for the quality assessment and discrimination of the three Panax herbs.

Owing to hostile growth environments and increasing related production, Cistanche plants have decreased in number. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the quality of and to predict potential suitable regions for two official species and two nonofficial species (C. salsa and C. sinensis) by high-performance liquid chromatography and the MaxEnt model. The results indicated that 2′-acetylacteoside was present only in C. deserticola. The compound can be used as a potential chemical marker to discriminate C. deserticola from the three other Cistanche plants. Anthocyanin A and carotenoid F were the common constituents of the two official species only and can thus be used as chemical markers to differentiate between official and nonofficial species. The prediction results of a potentially suitable distribution indicated that C. sinensis has much wider regions for potential distribution than the other species. Finally, the echinacoside content in C. deserticola was significantly different between the two suitable potential distributions, and the contents of samples from Inner Mongolia were significantly higher than those from Gansu Province. This is the first application of the combination of the contents of chemical components and the results of MaxEnt models for the quality assessment of herbal medicine. Our results may provide a reference for the sustainable utilization of endangered Cistanche species.