ABSTRACT
This study was aimed to establish a method for sensorial color digitalization of Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) with the application of spectrocolorimeter. The discussion was focused on difficulties of distinguishing surface and section color of CHMs. Based on uniform color space system of CIE1976L*a*b*, two methods for determination of section and surface color were constructed with two different kinds of spectrocolorimeters taking Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma as the experimental objective. In this paper, different kinds of sample preparation methods were used. Based on results, the method of scraping and grinding was proposed to prepare samples for section color determination. The method of wet pressing and peeling was proposed to prepare samples for surface color determination. Besides, RSD and dE*ab were served as evaluation indexes. This paper provided a simple, rapid and reliable analysis method for the color determination of CHMs. It also gave insight to future research on digitalization and modernization of CHMs' organoleptic characteristics based on traditional macroscopic identification.