삼지구엽초에 함유되어 있는 icariin 함량을 신속하게 추정하기 위하여 NIRS(근적외선 분광분석기)를 이용한 분석 방법을 검토하였다. HPLC를 이용하여 분석된 삼지구엽초 유전자원 150계통에 대한 이카린 함량치를 NIRS 스펙트럼에 적용시켜 42개의 calibration set 와 26개의 valilion set를 구분하였다. NIRS의 검량식을 몇가지 방법에 의하여 비교분석한 결과 2차미분된 스텍트럼을 MPLS(Modified Partial Least Squares)를 이용한 회귀식에 이용하는 것이 가장 적합하였다. HPLC를 이용한 유전자원들의 이카린 함량은 평균 0.424%(0.12~0.67%)이었으며, NIRS에서 도출된 검량식과의 상관계수는 0.951을 나타내었다. 따라서 삼지구엽초의 이카린 함량은 NIRS를 이용하여 신속 편리하게 분석할 수 있음이 인정되었다.
Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) has become widely accepted for rapid quantitative analysis of components in some crops. Our object was to determine icariin contents in whole plant of Epimedium koreanum by using an NIRS system. Total 150 plant samples previously analyzed by HPLC were scanned by NIRS and 68 samples were selected for calibration and validation equation. A calibration equation calculated by MPLS(modified partial least squares) regression technique was developed and a coefficient of determination in calibration and validation sets were 0.95 and 0.82, respectively. A comparison between NIRS estimation and HPLC value was performed with the remaining samples not included in the calibration and validation sets. Most of samples also showed a positive correlation like a validation set. Our results demonstrate that this developed NIRS equation can be practically used as a mass screening method for rapid quantification of icarin contents in Epimedium koreanum N.