Comparison of Component Composition of Goreisan Extract Produced by Different Methods

Abstract

Kampo dry extracts are made by mixing crude drugs as prescribed prior to decoction, while European dry extracts are made by mixing after separately decocting more than one crude drug. Since there is no definitive known difference in the quality of the two extract production methods, we investigated differences between methods in resultant component content by comparing these two types of extract using HPLC. In this study, we adopted Goreisan as the Kampo formula to be investigated. We found that some components of Goreisan differed significantly between the two production methods. In addition, the content of cinnamic acid, the quantitative index component of Goreisan extract, has been shown to be the same in amount even when decoction methods are changed.