ABSTRACT
Sulfur fumigation was a traditional maintenance method for traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). However , as people have paid more and more attentions on the sulfur dioxide residue in the sulfur fumigated TCMs , China has gradually decreased and banned the sulfur fumigation for TCMs . This study adopted organic elemental analysis for the determination of sulfur contents in multiple TCMs . Elemental analysis can give accu-rate results with little sample amount in a short time . Data analysis indicated that the sulfur content of 0.5% can be set as a criterion for the identification of sulfur fumigated TCMs. Sulfur content of ten unknown TCMs were determined by elemental analysis and identified whether the TCMs have been fumigated by sulfur. The devel-oped elemental analysis method can be used as a screening method for rapid identification of TCMs' quality.