Influence of different heating degrees on color of Chinese materia medica pieces / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To study the relativity between the heating degree and color value of Chinese materia medica pieces. Methods: The effects of heating temperature and time on the color value of Gardeniae Fructus and Crataegi Fructus were investigated by spectrophotometric technique. Results: The color value curve of Gardeniae Fructus after processing under the mid-and high-heating showed the better rules that the stationary phase of L* and δE* appeared in 7 min and stationary phase of a* and b* appeared in 4 min. However, the color value curve of Crataegi Fructus showed the stationary phase of L*, a*, b*, and δE* appeared in 5 min after low-heating process. After the mid-heating process, the stationary phase of L* and δE* appeared in 6 min, stationary phase of a* and b* values appeared in 5 and 8 min, respectively. After the high-heating process, the stationary phase of L* and δE* appeared in 8 min and the stationary phase of a* and b* value appeared in 5 min. Conclusion: There is the correlation of processing degree between the measurement results and the perusal observation, and the result of color measurement could provide the reference for confirming optimum parameters of processing technique.