RESUMEN
AIM: To find new methods for heavy metals pollution in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) with macroporous chelating resins. METHODS: We emulsificated crude extracts of TCM and adjusted its pH to 7 first and the pretreated crude extracts was treated by three kinds of macroporous resins(D401,D402 and D001) respectively,then we detected the concentrations of 5 heavy metals(Cu,Pb,Cd,Hg,As) and flavonoids in the crude extracts with or without treatment. RESULTS: The concentrations of all heavy metals decreased significantly after treatment of D401 and D402.The concentrations(mg/L) of Cu,Pb,Cd changed from 0.500,0.521,0.078 to 0.117 and 0.236,0.174 and 0.165,0.024 and 0.045,respectively,and Hg and As became beyond the detection limit after the treatment,but the use of D001 affected a bit quantities of 5 heavy metals.Moreover,the concentration of flavonoids kept almost the same after treatment of such 3 resins.On the condition of room temperature,we found that a fluent velocity of 30 m/s and pH of 7 would bring the superior treatment of D401 to excessive heavy metals in TCM. CONCLUSION: Macroporous chelating resins(D401 and D402) can be employed in the treatment of excessive heavy metals in crude extracts of TCM.