2003 Volume 8 Issue 3 Pages 119-122
The effectiveness of a copper-alcohol treatment to reduce the microbial numbers in the powdered crude drugs was investigated. Furthermore, the effect on the chemical quality control was also evaluated. After the treatment, no microorganisms and no changes in the appearance of the crude drugs were found. Furthermore, no remarkable change in the contents of index components in the powdered crude drugs was found except for that of swertiamarin and gentiopicroside in gentian and that of ginsenoside Rb1 and Rg1 in ginseng. These results suggest that this treatment method would be very useful to reduce the number of microorganisms in powdered crude drugs.
