Abstract: The combination of pyrolysis high resolution gas chromatography and pat- tern recognition techniques is a powerful tool for the classification of traditional Chinese drug. A study has been completed on 55 Beimu samples of five different geographic origins: Eastern China. Central China. South-western China, North-western China and North-eastern China. Principal component analysis and SIMCA are applied to effectively classifying the samples according to the origin of the plants. The chemical information contained in the high resolution gas chromatographic data is sufficient to characterize the geographic origin of samples.

Key words: Beimu, Fritillaria, Pyrolysis High Resolution Gas Chromatography, Pattern Recognition