Determination and risk assessment of heavy metals and harmful elements residues in Niuhuang Qingwei Pills based on ICP-MS / 中国中药杂志

To achieve a comprehensive understanding of heavy metals and harmful elements residues in Niuhuang Qingwei Pills,49 samples from 18 manufactures were collected from 31 provinces in China.Risk assessment and control preparations were applied innovatively in evaluation of exogenous pollution in traditional Chinese Medicine.Determination methods for Pb,Cd,As,Hg and Cu were established by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry(ICP-MS).Based on the procedures including hazard identification,hazard characterization,exposure assessment and risk characterization,risk assessment was performed and residual limits for Pb,Cd,As,Hg and Cu in the drug were formulated.The results showed that the hazardous quotients(HQ) of the elements were decreased in the following order:Pb>As>Cu>Hg>Cd,and the total hazardous index(HI) of heavy metals and harmful elements in Niuhuang Qingwei Pills was above 1,implying health risk of the drug.Under the proposed limits,5 elements in the control preparation as well as Cd and Cu in the samples were within the limits range,but the excess rates of Pb,As and Hg in the samples were 12%,12% and 14%,respectively.For the first time,basic steps for risk assessment of Chinese patent medicine were established,which provided model and reference for risk assessment and limit formulation of other drugs.

Fingerprint Study and Primary Quality Evaluation of Niuhuang Qingwei Pills Based on UPLC and Reference Drug / 中国药学杂志

OBJECTIVE： To apply reference drug in the fingerprint study of Niuhuang qingwei pills, and perform primary evaluation of the quality grade of the samples. METHODS： Ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) separation was performed on an AQUITY UPLC BEH C18 column with gradient elution using acetonitrile (containing 0.5% formic acid)-0.5% formic acid at a flow rate of 0.2 mL•min-1. The injection volume was 2 μL and the column temperature was maintained at 40 ℃. The detection wavelength was set at 254 nm. By comparing with reference substances and the reference herbal materials, characteristic peaks and their ascriptions were investigated. Using Niuhuang qingwei pills reference drug as the accompanying physical control, the similarities of the fingerprints of 49 batches of samples from 18 manufacturers were calculated, and the quality grades were evaluated. RESULTS： The similarities of all samples fell within the range of 0.76-0.98. The similarities of 49 samples were above 0.75 and met the second-grade limit. The similarity of 24 samples were above 0.90 and met the first-grade limit. CONCLUSION： The method is simple, accurate and rapid. It can be used for the quality control and grade evaluation of Niuhuang qingwei pills, which provides reference for the quality grade research of Chinese patent medicines.