Simulation of Drying Process of Single Liuwei Dihuangwan and Analysis of Its Dynamics Based on Weibull Function / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Objective: Taking single Liuwei Dihuangwan(LDW) as the research object,the moisture content change and volumetric shrinkage characteristics in its drying process were investigated,which provided the theoretical basis for improving the drying efficiency of the pills and reducing the quality problems of the pattern pills,crusts and crack pills. Method: The drying characteristics of LDW at drying temperature of 50,75,100,125℃ were studied by constant temperature hot air drying and vacuum drying.Based on sphere model of Fick's second law and Arrhenius equation,the effective diffusion coefficient and activation energy of the drying process were obtained.The volumetric shrinkage characteristics of the pills during the drying process were studied by the projected area method.The Weibull function was used to fit the drying dynamics curve of single LDW. Result: Hot air drying and vacuum drying of LDW both belonged to the decreasing drying processes,and the time required to achieve the same moisture content in vacuum drying was shorter than that in hot air drying.The moisture ratio in the drying process of single LDW obeyed the Weibull function distribution(R2=0.994 5-0.999 7),the scale parameter(α) decreased with the increase of temperature,and drying temperature had significant influence on the shape parameter (β).The effective diffusion coefficients of hot air drying and vacuum drying were 2.626×10-3-7.823×10-2,3.782×10-3-9.042×10-2 m2·s-1, their activation energy were 47.18,42.69 kJ·mol-1,respectively.The volume ratio of hot air drying and vacuum drying of LDW ranged from 0.638 to 0.741 and 0.607 to 0.689,respectively. Conclusion: Weibull function can be adopted to predict the drying and dehydration law of LDW.Under the condition of low temperature drying,slow-down of shrinkage rate of the pills is helpful to prevent the formation of splitting pills,this study provides theoretical and technical basis for dying of LDW.

Drying kinetics and mathematical modeling of Erzhi Pills during hot-air drying process / 中草药

Objective: To study the change rule of water content in the drying process of hot air drying of thin layer drying characteristic and model research, and to provide reference for improving the quality of Erzhi Pills (EP). Methods: The moisture ratio, drying rate of dry basis, and drying rate curves along with the change of drying time and relationship between dry basis moisture content and drying rate of EP were studied using a hot air dryer at five levels of drying air temperature in the range of 50-90 ℃. The model was fitted and verified by the empirical model Henderson & Pabis model, Newton model, Page model, Logarithmic model, two term exponential model, Wang & Singh model, Midilli et al. model, etc. Meanwhile, based on Fick's diffusion law, the effective diffusion coefficients of water (Deff) and activation energy value in EP were calculated. Results: The drying curves of EP show that the moisture ratio and drying rate of EP were closely related to the temperature of drying medium, and the moisture of the material decreases with the prolonged drying time. It could be seen from the drying rate curve that the drying rate increased with the increase of hot air temperature, and the migration of moisture was accelerated. By comparing the correlation coefficient (R2), chi-square (χ2) and standard error (RMSE), we could see that the mean value of R2 of model number 7 was the maximum, the χ2 and RMSE mean were the smallest (0.996 86, 2.43 × 10−4, and 1.93 × 10−4), respectively. The results showed that the model number 7 could describe and predict the drying process of the pills. The experimental data had the effective diffusion coefficient (Deff) value of 8.6 × 10−11—3.13 × 10−10 m2/s, and the activation energy (Ea) was 30.97 kJ/mol. Conclusion: The hot air drying process of EP can be modeled and verified. The research provides a new way to explore the drying characteristics and quality of pills.

Effect and regulation of drying on quality of traditional Chinese medicine pills / 中国中药杂志

The dry quality of traditional Chinese medicine pills is the hot spot of pills research, because their quality has a crucial effect on the efficacy and development of dosage forms. Through literature research and statistical analysis, we would review the current problems on the drying of traditional Chinese medicine pills in this paper, and surrounding the evaluation system for traditional Chinese medicine pills, analyze the characteristics of common drying equipment and processes as well as their effect on quality of pills, discuss the problems in drying equipment and process as well as quality, and put forward the corresponding strategies, hoping to provide new ideas and new methods for the quality improvement of traditional Chinese medicine pills and quality standards.