Objective: Radix Gentiana crassicaulis is the major cultivated Gentiana species in Yunnan Province. Wildlife tending is a major cropping pattern. In this study

an improved and comprehensive HPLC fingerprints were developed for the quality evaluation of G. crassicaulis

together with the simultaneous determination of four iridoid and secoiridoid glycosides. Loganic acid

swertiamarin

gentiopicroside

sweroside were also detected. Method: HPLC separation was performed on an Agilent Zorbax SB C18 column. The mobile phase was methanol and water with linear gradient change of methanol from 0 to 40% in 20 min. The flow rate was 1.0 mL·min-1

and the detection wavelength was set at 238 nm. Result: The HPLC chromatograms of fifteen samples from different regions of China showed a similar pattern. Thirteen peaks were selected as the characteristic peaks to evaluate the similarities among different G. crassicaulis samples. Conclusion: This is the first report on an HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of four bioactive components and fingerprint analysis of wildlife tending G. crassicaulis. The results indicate that this comprehensive method is suitable for evaluate the quality of G. crassicaulis for GAP planting.