Background: A set of logical criteria that can accurately identify and verify the cultivation region of raw materials is a critical tool for the scientific management of traditional herbal medicine. Methods and Results: Volatile compounds were obtained from 19 and 32 samples of Angelica gigas Nakai cultivated in Korea and China, respectively, by using steam distillation extraction. The metabolites were identified using GC/MS by querying against the NIST reference library. Data binning was performed to normalize the number of variables used in statistical analysis. Multivariate statistical analyses, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), and Orthogonal Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) were performed using the SIMCA-P software. Significant variables with a Variable Importance in the Projection (VIP) score higher than 1.0 as obtained through OPLS-DA and those that resulted in p-values less than 0.05 through one-way ANOVA were selected to verify the marker compounds. Among the 19 variables extracted, styrene, α-pinene, and β-terpinene were selected as markers to indicate the origin of A. gigas. Conclusions: The statistical model developed was suitable for determination of the geographical origin of A. gigas. The cultivation regions of six Korean and eight Chinese A. gigas. samples were predicted using the established OPLS-DA model and it was confirmed that 13 of the 14 samples were accurately classified

• 강귀보(우석대학교 약학대학) | Guibao Jiang
• 임재윤(우석대학교 약학대학) | Jae Yoon Leem Corresponding author