Application prospect and expectation of fungistatic agents of plants in preservation of Chinese herbal medicines / 中国中药杂志

During the process of growth, harvesting, transportation, processing and storage, Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) can be easily contaminated by fungi and their metabolites like mycotoxins, which not only express negative effects on the quality and safety of CHMs and their processed products, but also pose great threats to human health. Now, some chemical synthetic fungicides have been frequently used to control the growth of fungi and accumulation of mycotoxins in the preservation of CHMs. However, the concentration and type of chemical fungicides allowed for postharvest application are restricted due to the disadvantages of their high residual toxicity, long degradation period and pollution to the environment and so on. Therefore, it is critical to research and develop some highly effective, safe and non-toxic, natural, environment-friendly fungistatic agents from plants to prevent CHMs from being contaminated by fungi and mycotoxins. The paper reviews mycotoxins and their harmfulness, the effective compounds of fungistatic plants as well as the antifungal mechanism to provide scientific evidences for developing novel and effective fungistatic agents plants. Then, the application prospect of fungistatic agents from plants in the preservation of CHMs was discussed.

Current situation analysis and countermeasures on contamination of heavy metal in traditional Chinese medicinal materials in China / 中草药

Recent years, with the rapid development of industrialization in China, the contamination of heavy metal was worsening, and traditional Chinese medicinal materials (TCMM) were also suffered. The data were collected in the literatures in the past five years, and Green Trade Standard of Importing & Exporting Medicinal Plants & Preparations was used as the standard to evaluate the pollution conditions of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), and copper (Cu). The five heavy metals exceeded the limits of the standard and the percentages were 9.66%, 26.35%, 13.0%, 9.32%, and 16.09%, respectively. Moreover, statistics on the residues of the heavy metals in different categories of TCMM from various origins were also carried out in this paper. The results showed that the contamination of heavy metals in TCMM differently depended on the origins and categories. Studies on the rapid detection methods and the limit standards of heavy metal should be established immediately. At the same time, the regulations should be formulated timely and supervision also should be intensified. To solve the problems of excessive amounts of heavy metals in TCMM, necessary measures should be taken to control the contamination of TCMM.

Study on improvement of dissolution rate of water-honeyed pills of six herbs with rehmunnia by technique of super fine crushing / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the affection of crushing technology on quality. The dissolution of Pills of Six Herbs with Rehmunnia prepared by different crushing technology was determined by taking the dissolution of Paeonol as test marker.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The Pills was prepared with the fine powder which was crushed by normal crusher or super fine crusher. The rotatory-basket method was used, and the cumulative dissolution percentage was determined by UV.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Statistics indicated there was a significant difference in dissolution parameter (T50) between super fine crushing powder Pills and normal fine-crushing powder Pills (P < 0.01), and there was a difference in dissolution of different batches of Pills of Six Herbs with Rehmunnia prepared by the normal crush technique (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The determination of dissolution of Pills of Six Herbs with Rehmunnia is necessary. In order to improve the quality of drugs, we should adopt the technique of super fine crushing in the preparation procedure.</p>