Objective  Quality of sections of different age on a medicinal Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua plant was analyzed for processing, commercial classification, and clinic dosage determination.

  Method   According to the 2015 edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia (Part 1 and Part 4), contents of moisture, ethanol extracts, ashes, and polysaccharides in sections of different ages on P. cyrtonema plants harvested in Liuzhi Special Zone of Guizhou Province were determined. Flavonoids content was measured by colorimetry.

  Result   Among sections of different ages on the plants, the lowest ash content of 1.38% was found on the 2-year-old specimens; the highest alcohol extract of 78.04% on the 2-year-olds; and the highest polysaccharides of 14.45% on the one-year-olds. The polysaccharide contents of the one to 3 years old sections met the pharmacopoeia standard, but the 4- and 5-year-olds did not. The highest content of flavonoids was 1.91% found on 2-year-lod plant sections. The content of ashes inversely correlated with those other functional components. The principal component analysis ranked the order of sections on their contents of the functional substances as 2-year-old>1-year-old>3-year-old>4-year-old>5-year-old.

  Conclusion  For processing into market products, the harvested P. cyrtonema plants could be sorted according to the age of plant sections, such as, the 2-year-olds as Grade 1, 1-year-old as Grade 2, and 3-year-old as Grade 3. For clinical applications, appropriate dosages could be determined according to the grades as well.