OBJECTIVETo evaluate the performance of vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) for the bio-decontamination of the high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter unit.

METHODSSelf-made or commercially available bioindicators were placed at designated locations in the HEPA filter unit under VHP fumigation. The spores on coupons were then extracted by 0.5 h submergence in eluent followed by 200- time violent knocks.

RESULTSDue to the presence of HEPA filter in the box, spore recovery from coupons placed at the bottom of the filter downstream was significantly higher than that from coupons placed at the other locations. The gap of decontamination efficiency between the top and the bottom of the filter downstream became narrower with the exposure time extended. The decontamination efficiency of the bottom of the filter downstream only improved gently with the injection rate of H2O2 increased and the decontamination efficiency decreased instead when the injection rate exceeded 2.5 g/min. The commercially available bioindicators were competent to indicate the disinfection efficiency of VHP for the HEPA filter unit.

CONCLUSIONThis assay developed can detect all 16 β-lactams demanded by the European Union (EU). The whole procedure takes only 45 min and can detect 42 samples and the standards with duplicate analysis.

A moxibustion device with the functions of auricular fumigation moxibustion and heat-sensitive moxibustion is designed. The smoke of the ignited moxa stick is used for the fumigation moxibustion at the external auditory canal, while the heat generated works on Dazhui (GV 14) for heat-sensitive moxibustion. The device consists of five parts, i.e. combustion chamber, smoke pipe, smoke processing chamber, power module and connector. It solves the limitations such as unpleasant experience in treatment, unfavorable temperature control, easy scalding and excessive manual dependence induced by usual fumigation moxibustion and during heat-sensitive moxibustion. This moxibustion device may improve the safety and convenience when delivering the treatment with fumigation moxibustion and heat-sensitive moxibustion, as well as the work efficiency of medical staff.
Humans ; Moxibustion ; Hot Temperature ; Fumigation ; Smoke ; Temperature

Traditional Chinese medicine fumigation device is the carrier of traditional Chinese medicine fumigation treatment. In recent years, with the rapid development of new technology and new materials, the development of fumigation device changes with each passing day, and a variety of new products continue to emerge. However, at present, the lack of corresponding evaluation norms, resulting in some difficulties in the registration, marketing, quality control, evaluation scale and other aspects of the product. Some products have many disadvantages in clinical use. From the perspective of technical review, this paper elaborates and analyzes the main concerns in technical review, such as product structure, main risks, performance requirements, clinical evaluation, etc., in order to provide a basis for the design, development, production, registration, use and post-marketing supervision of the devices.
Fumigation ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Marketing ; Quality Control

The continuous cropping obstacle of Panax notoginseng is serious, and effective control measures are lacking. Soil disinfection with chloropicrin(CP) has been proven to be effective in reducing the obstacles to continuous cropping of other crops. In order to ascertain the effect of CP in the continuous cropping of P. notoginseng, this paper explored the influences of CP at different treatment concentrations(0,30,40,50 kg/Mu, 1 Mu≈667 m~2) on soil macro-element nutrients, soil enzyme activity, growth and development of P. notoginseng, and the accumulation of medicinal components. The results showed that CP fumigation significantly increased the content of total nitrogen, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, and available phosphorus in the soil, but it had no significant effect on potassium content. The soil protease activity showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing with the prolonging of the treatment time. Both the soil urease and acid phosphatase activities showed a trend of first decreasing and then increasing with the prolonging of the treatment time. The higher the CP treatment concentration was, the lower the urease and acid phosphatase activities would be in the soil. The protease activity was relatively high after CP40 treatment, which was better than CP30 and CP50 treatments in promoting the nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium accumulation in P. notoginseng. The seedling survival rates after CP0, CP30, CP40, and CP50 tratments in October were 0, 65.56%, 89.44%, and 83.33%, respectively. Compared with the CP30 and CP50 treatments, CP40 treatment significantly facilitated the growth and development of P. notoginseng, the increase in fresh and dry weights, and the accumulation of root saponins. In summary, CP40 treatment accelerates the increase in soil nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients and their accumulation in P. notoginseng, elevates the seedling survival rate of P. notoginseng, enhances the growth and development of P. notoginseng, and promotes the accumulation of medicinal components. CP40 treatment is therefore recommended in production.
Fumigation ; Growth and Development ; Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated ; Panax notoginseng ; Soil

Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) has a long history and abundant experience in external therapy, which marks human wisdom. In the early history of human, people found that fumigation, coating, and sticking of some tree branches and herb stems can help alleviate scabies and remove parasites in productive labor, which indicates the emergence of external therapy. Pathogen usually enters the body through the surface, so external therapy can be used to treat the disease. External therapy is among the major characteristic of surgery of TCM. As one of the external therapies in TCM, external application to acupoints smooths the zang-fu organs through meridians and collaterals, thereby harmonizing yin and yang. This therapy emerged in the early society, formed the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, improved in the Song and Ming dynasties, and matured in the Qing dynasty. With the efforts of experts in history, it has had a mature theory. According to modern research, it can avoid the first-pass effect of liver and the gastrointestinal irritation and improve the bioavailability of Chinese medicine. Based on the effect of Chinese medicine and the theory of meridian and collateral, it can stimulate the acupoints, exert regulatory effect on acupoints, and give full play to the efficacy of TCM and the interaction of the two. Thereby, it can regulate qi and blood and balance yin and yang, thus being widely used in the treatment of diseases. In this paper, the use of external application to acupoints, the effect on skin immunity, the regulation of neuro-inflammatory mechanism, the relationship between acupoint application and human circulation network, and the development of its dosage form were summarized through literature review. On this basis, this study is expected to lay a foundation for further research.
Humans ; Acupuncture Points ; Biological Availability ; Fumigation ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Meridians

This study aims to investigate the influence of the different dosages of sulfur on the quality and the browning enzyme activity of Chrysanthemum morifolium cv. Boju. In this experiment,UV-spectrophotometry was used to determine the activities of browning enzymes,including polyphenol oxidase( PPO) and peroxidase( POD),in 7 different dosages of 0,4,8,16,50,150,200 g·kg~(-1)( weight ratio of sulfur/fresh chrysanthemum). A comprehensively comparison of the 7 chemical constituents of C. morifolium cv. Boju fumigated with 7 different dosage of sulfur was conducted by HPLC analysis. In this paper,the results showed that the activities of PPO and POD enzymes decreased significantly in chrysanthemum processed by sulfur fumigation. The activities of PPO and POD enzymes decreased gradually with the increase of sulfur dosage. When the sulfur dosage was higher than 4 g·kg~(-1),the PPO enzyme was significantly reduced. When the sulfur dosage was higher than 8 g·kg~(-1),the PPO enzyme was completely inactivated. The effect of different sulfur dosage s on the chemical composition was investigated. In comparison,it was found that when the sulfur dosage was 8 g·kg~(-1),the content of chlorogenic acid was higher than the 4 g·kg~(-1) and that of the sample without sulfur fumigation. Thereafter,with the increase of the sulfur dosage,the content of chlorogenic acid was unchanged. It was speculated that when harvesting,the tissue of fresh flower was destroyed,which caused the activation of browning enzymes. Afterwards,the sulfur fumigation could significantly reduce the activity of browning enzymes,which prevented the conversion of phenols in the reaction substrates( chlorogenic acid and 3,5-dicaffeoylquninic acid) into terpenoids,and better retained quinic acid components. However,when the sulfur dosage reached 8 g·kg~(-1) or16 g·kg~(-1),the content of quinic acid components were no longer changed,which indicated that the sulfur dosage had reached the saturated dosage. Similarly,when the sulfur dosage was increased,the contents of flavonoid aglycones showed a downward trend except for luteolin-7-O-glucoside. It was speculated that the sulfur fumigation inhibited the activity of hydrolase,which reduced the hydrolysis of flavonoid glycosides to aglycones. However,the reaction mechanism needed further verification. In conclusion,although sulfur fumigation could significantly inhibit browning,different dosages of sulfur had a significant effect on the chemical composition of C. morifolium cv. Boju,which could affect the consistency of quality and the stability of the therapeutic effect. Excessive use of sulfur was likely to cause a large amount of SO2 residues in C. morifolium cv. Boju,Therefore,different Sulphur dosages had a significant effect on the quality of chrysanthemum,which therefore was not recommended in production. A small dose of sulfur could be used to prevent enzymatic browning. When the dosage of sulfur increased to a certain extent or reached a saturation state,a small dose of sulfur is recommended in necessary. In this paper,the correlation between the sulfur dosage,the enzyme activity,and the main chemical constituents of chrysanthemum was clarified. The experimental research provided the guidance for regulating the harvesting processing of chrysanthemum and the harvesting processing,and improving the quality of chrysanthemum.
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Chrysanthemum ; Fumigation ; Quinic Acid ; Sulfur

The samples of sulfur-fumigated Paeoniae Alba Radix acquired both by random spot check from domestic market and self-production by the research group in the laboratory were used to evaluate the effects of sulphur fumigation on the quality of Paeoniae Alba Radix by comparing sulfur-fumigated degree and character, the content of paeoniflorin and paeoniflorin sulfurous acid ester, and changes of the fingerprint. We used methods in Chinese Pharmacopeia to evaluate the character of sulfur-fumigated Paeoniae Alba Radix and determinate the content of aulfur-fumigated paeoniflorin. LC-MS method was used to analyze paeoniflorin-converted products. HPLC fingerprint methods were established to evaluate the differences on quality by similarity. Results showed that fumigated Paeoniae Alba Radix became white and its unique fragrance disappeared, along with the production of pungent sour gas. It also had a significant effect on paeoniflorin content. As sulfur smoked degree aggravated, paeoniflorin content decreased subsequently, some of which turned into paeoniflorin sulfurous acid ester, and this change was not reversible. Fingerprint also showed obvious changes. Obviously, sulfur fumigation had severe influence on the quality of Paeoniae Alba Radix, but we can control the quality of the Paeoniae Alba Radix by testing the paeoniflorin sulfurous acid ester content.
Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Fumigation ; methods ; Paeonia ; chemistry ; Quality Control ; Sulfur ; chemistry

Sulfur fumigation, which is traditional method for preservation, pest control, insecticide and sterilization, has long been widely used in processing and storage and played a positive role of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). As some businesses sided pursuit of profit, abused and repeated use of sulfur fumigation, have resulted in a large number of harmful residues, such as sulf dioxide (SO2) and harmful heavy metals, which brings a significant impact and danger on human health. This article summarizes the sulfur species and the sulfur fumigation methods and analyzes the harmful substances in TCM after sulfur fumigation, to provide a reference of the choice of species for the sulfur, the optimization of sulfur fumigation process and the standardized processing of TCM after sulfur fumigation.
Animals ; Drug Contamination ; Fumigation ; methods ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; Safety ; Sulfur ; chemistry ; Technology, Pharmaceutical ; methods

Sulfur fumigation (SF) is a universal phenomenon in primary processing of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in modern times. In the process, fumigation, sulfur or both of them act on the TCMs. Some active components of TCMs change quantitatively or qualitatively during the processing. At the same time, the sulfur dioxide and heavy metal would remain and cause a serious influence on quality and future development of TCM. This article reviews the chemical compositions change after SF to study the change law and their influence on quality. This article provide references for SF in TCMs' processing for a better and safer quality.
Drug Contamination ; Fumigation ; methods ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; Quality Control ; Sulfur ; chemistry ; Technology, Pharmaceutical ; methods

A comprehensively comparison of the chemical profiles between sun-drying BJ (NBJ) and sulfur-fumigated BJ (SBJ) was conducted by HPLC analysis and the discrepant peaks were identified or tentatively assigned by HPLC-ESI-MSn. A total of 32 chemical components were used for qualitative comparison. Meanwhile, a quantitative comparison of BJwere conducted by HPLC analysis and determining seven compounds from 3 NBJ and 3 SBJ samples dramatic chemical changes were found. After sulfur fumigation, the contents of flavonoids glycosides and phenolic acids were remarkably reduced, but the contents of flavonoids aglycones were significantly increased. Multivariate statistics, including principle component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminate analysis (PLS-DA) were used to investigate the potential damaging effect of sulfur-fumigating process. The PCA score plots showed six samples were clearly classified into the sun-drying and sulfur-fumigating groups. And according to VIP >1, the most important chemical markers were apigenin, luteolin and 3,5-dicaffeoylquninic acid which could be used to distinguish NBJ and SBJ samples. Combining the results of qualitative and quantitative analysis, it showed that the sulfur fumigation has a significant effect on BJ.
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Chrysanthemum ; chemistry ; Fumigation ; Least-Squares Analysis ; Principal Component Analysis ; Sulfur