Abstract
Bear bile preparations (Fel Ursi and Yu-tan in Japanese) have been traditionally prepared from gallbladder bile of wild bear and used for the treatment of gastric and hepatobiliary disorders. Due to the decline of wild bear resources, bear bile preparations might be adulterated with cattle or pig bile to fulfill the market demand. In order to define and confirm the quality of bear bile preparations we established the principal component analysis (PCA) based on eight HPLC-peak area data for the discrimination of genuine bear bile preparations from alternative (false and mixed) ones. By the present PCA method, the genuine bear bile was clearly discriminated from cattle, pig and/or bile mixture. Furthermore out of 173 samples of commercial bear bile preparations collected from 1975 to 2002 in Japan, 48 samples of false and mixed bile preparations were found. The present PCA method based on eight HPLC-peak area data made it possible to discriminate between genuine bear bile preparations and alternative ones.
