Objective

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By testing trace elements content and sulfur isotopic composition of 12 primary Cinnabaris ore samples from Xingren city and Danzhai county of Guizhou province， to explore the feasibility of identifying the origin of Chinese medicinal materials based on the trace element content-isotopic tracer technique.

Method

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The contents of 50 trace elements in Cinnabaris were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry， and cluster analysis and principal component analysis （PCA） were performed by OriginPro 2018 software. At the same time， the sulfur isotopic composition in Cinnabaris samples was determined by gas stable isotope mass spectrometry.

Result

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The trace element content and sulfur isotopic composition of Cinnabaris in Xingren and Danzhai were quite different， the contents of vanadium （V）， chromium （Cr）， copper （Cu）， arsenic （As）， strontium （Sr）， barium （Ba）， thallium （Tl）， aluminum （Al）， titanium （Ti） and manganese （Mn） in Cinnabaris from Lanmuchang were significantly higher than those in the Sixiangchang. The results of cluster analysis showed that the trace element content of 6 Cinnabaris samples from Sixiangchang was close and had a good correlation， while the contents of trace elements in 6 samples from Lanmuchang were far apart. The PCA biplots showed that 6 samples of Cinnabaris from Sixiangchang concentrated on the negative half axis of principal component 1 and 2， while 6 samples from Lanmuchang concentrated on the positive half axis of principal component 1 and 2. The

δ

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S values of Cinnabaris samples from Lanmuchang and Sixiangchang were 0.573%-0.884% and 2.233%-2.364%， scatter diagram showed that the

δ

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S values of Cinnabaris from the same origin were distributed in the same area， but

δ

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S values of samples from the two producing areas were different， which indicates that the formation mechanism of Cinnabaris was different.

Conclusion

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Based on the analysis of Cinnabaris from two producing areas in Guizhou province， it is found that Cinnabaris from different producing areas has different trace element composition， and the correlation of trace elements in samples from the same producing area is good， and the composition of

δ

34

S in Cinnabaris from different producing areas is different. The results show that trace element-isotopic tracer technique has great potential in the study of origin identification and traceability of mineral Chinese medicine， which can provide new research ideas for origin traceability， identification and quality evaluation of Chinese medicinal materials.