OBJECTIVETo explore the physical and behavioral, microscopic and chemical characteristic traits of Brassica rapa, and supply scientific bases for establishing its quality control standard.

METHODMicroscopic identification method was adopted to observe the microscopic characters of ten batches crude drugs, the contents of water, impurity, total ash, insoluble acid ash and extractives were detected based on Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2010) , and the oil constituents were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

RESULTThe microscopic traits were cotyledon, palisade cells, non-glandular hairs and inner endosperm, while the palisade cells, cotyledon cells and non-glandular hairs existed in its powders. The results confirmed the contents of water, impurity, total ash and insoluble acid ash should be fewer than 6%, 4.5%, 6%, 0.7%, while the content of extractives should exceed 11%. The main oil compounds in it were erucic acid, oleic acid and gamma-sitosterol through the GC-MS analysis.

CONCLUSIONThe experimental methods were accurate and reliable, and the indexes and parameters may be thought as the quality standards for B. rapa.