Material classification of decoction pieces based on physical properties of powder / 中国中药杂志

Chinese medicinals feature different medicinal parts and enriched components, which makes their powders show obvious microscopic identification characteristics and specific physical properties. On this basis, the commonly used Chinese medicinals can be divided into several categories, such as powdery, fibrous, sugar, oil, and brittle materials, which is of great importance to the research and development of personalized Chinese medicinal preparation technology. However, the existing classification methods are highly subjective and thus difficult to meet the requirements for the development of personalized Chinese medicinal preparations with high quality. In this study, 55 representative Chinese medicinals, such as Dioscoreae Rhizoma and Leonuri Herba, were selected, and the physical properties of their powders were systematically characterized by comprehensive powder tester, torque rheometer, texture analyzer, etc., based on which a data set encompassing physical properties of these powders was built. The typical physical fingerprints of powders from the above 5 categories were established by multivariate statistical analysis. Then, the Chinese medicinals were classified according to the Euclidean distance between each of them and the typical value in the PCA score plot. For those with multiple material properties, whose classification boundary was fuzzy, the proportions of different types of materials were calculated with the combination of Euclidean distance, powder properties, microscopic identification characteristics, and chemical composition, so as to achieve the multivariate quantitative classification of Chinese medicinals. This lays the foundation for the further creation of intelligent personalized Chinese medicinal preparation technology.

Correlation between appearance characteristics and intrinsic quality of Gastrodiae Rhizoma / 中国中药杂志

Totally 21 batches of Gastrodiae Rhizoma pieces from various habitats with different appearance characteristics were analyzed. Five active components( gastrodin,4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol,parishin B,parishin C,and parishin A) were determined by UPLC. Polysaccharide content was determined by phenol sulfuric acid method. And the content of alcohol extracts was determined. The correlation between appearance characteristics and active components,polysaccharide content and amount of alcohol extracts of Gastrodiae Rhizoma pieces was statistically analyzed by SPSS 19. 0 software. And the five active components in the 21 Gastrodiae Rhizoma pieces were clustered by using the Ward' s method in SPSS 19. 0 software. The study found that inconspicuous keratinous Gastrodiae Rhizoma had a low content of each component,and the degree of keratin was positively correlated with the content of each component and the extract,with no significant correlation with the polysaccharide content. In the cluster analysis,the 21 batches were divided into three groups,except the second group whose gastrodin content was significantly higher than the special conditions of other groups. According to the content of the five active components,19 batches of Gastrodiae Rhizoma pieces were classified into two groups with obvious keratin and no obvious keratin. In terms of color,with the deepening of brown color,the content of each component showed a downward trend. The grading of decoction pieces of Gastrodiae Rhizoma shall give full consideration to the color and texture. And the combination of chemical composition and appearance characteristics is an indicator to evaluate the product specification standards.

Study on Grading of Gypsum Pieces / 中国药师

Objective:To comprehensively evaluate the intrinsic and external quality, and explore the grading of gypsum pieces. Methods:The characteristics, contents of main components and trace elements and X-diffraction exclusive characteristic peaks of gyp-sum pieces from different origins were detected. Combined with the market grading, the grading standard for gypsum pieces was further improved. Results:According to the tested indices, gypsum pieces were graded into two classes:excellent pieces and common decoc-tion pieces. Conclusion:The study shows reference value for guiding the market grading of gypsum pieces.