During the storage process, Chinese medicinal materials are susceptible to insect infestation due to their own nature and external storage factors. Infestation by insects can have varying impacts on the materials. In mild cases, it affects the appearance and reduces consumer purchasing power, while in severe cases, it affects the quality, reduces medicinal value, and introduces impurities such as insect bodies, excrement, and secretions, resulting in significant contamination of the medicinal materials. This study reviewed the rele-vant factors influencing insect infestation in Chinese medicinal materials and the compositional changes that occur after infestation and summarized maintenance measures for preventing insect infestation. Additionally, it provided an overview of detection techniques applicable to identifying insect infestation during the storage of Chinese medicinal materials. During the storage process, insect infestation is the result of the combined effects of biological factors(source, species, and population density of insects), intrinsic factors(moisture, chemical composition, and metabolism), and environmental factors(temperature, relative humidity, and oxygen content). After infestation, there are significant changes in the content of constituents in the medicinal materials. By implementing strict pre-storage inspections, regular maintenance after storage, and appropriate storage and maintenance methods, the occurrence of insect infestation can be reduced, and the preservation rate of Chinese medicinal materials can be improved. The storage and maintenance of Chinese medicinal materials are critical for ensuring their quality. Through scientifically standardized storage and strict adherence to operational management standards, the risk of insect infestation can be minimized, thus guaranteeing the quality of Chinese medicinal materials.
Animals ; Drug Contamination/prevention & control* ; Insecta ; Preservation, Biological ; Temperature

INTRODUCTIONEnteric fever is a multisystemic infection which largely affects children. This study aimed to analyse the epidemiology, clinical presentation, treatment and outcome of paediatric enteric fever in Singapore.

MATERIALS AND METHODSA retrospective review of children diagnosed with enteric fever in a tertiary paediatric hospital in Singapore was conducted from January 2006 to January 2012. Patients with positive blood cultures for Salmonella typhi or paratyphi were identified from the microbiology laboratory information system. Data was extracted from their case records.

RESULTSOf 50 enteric fever cases, 86% were due to Salmonella typhi, with 16.3% being multidrug resistant (MDR) strains. Sixty-two percent of S. typhi isolates were of decreased ciprofloxacin susceptibility (DCS). Five cases were both MDR and DCS. The remaining 14% were Salmonella paratyphi A. There were only 3 indigenous cases. Ninety-four percent had travelled to typhoid-endemic countries, 70.2% to the Indian subcontinent and the rest to Indonesia and Malaysia. All patients infected with MDR strains had travelled to the Indian subcontinent. Anaemia was a significant finding in children with typhoid, as compared to paratyphoid fever (P = 0.04). Although all children were previously well, 14% suffered severe complications including shock, pericardial effusion and enterocolitis. None had typhoid vaccination prior to their travel to developing countries.

CONCLUSIONEnteric fever is largely an imported disease in Singapore and has contributed to significant morbidity in children. The use of typhoid vaccine, as well as education on food and water hygiene to children travelling to developing countries, needs to be emphasised.

Adolescent ; Anemia ; epidemiology ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; therapeutic use ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Drinking Water ; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial ; physiology ; Enterocolitis ; epidemiology ; Female ; Food Contamination ; Health Education ; Hospitals, Pediatric ; Humans ; India ; Indonesia ; Infant ; Malaysia ; Male ; Paratyphoid Fever ; drug therapy ; epidemiology ; microbiology ; Pericardial Effusion ; epidemiology ; Retrospective Studies ; Salmonella paratyphi A ; physiology ; Salmonella typhi ; physiology ; Shock ; epidemiology ; Singapore ; epidemiology ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Travel ; Typhoid Fever ; drug therapy ; epidemiology ; microbiology ; prevention & control ; Typhoid-Paratyphoid Vaccines ; therapeutic use

All kinds of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) differed from each other with different chemical components and properties. Owing to poor conditions and technologies, and the lack of scientific preservation, most TCMs will easily become mouldy during the processes of growth, harvest, handling, translation and especially storage, which will not only influence the quality, safety and efficacy of TCMs, but also cause serious waste and economic losses, and even do great harm to human health. The process of storage is closely related to the qualities of TCMs with many interference factors. Therefore, scientific preservation of TCM during storage is crucial to prevent them from being mouldy. This review analyzed the important harm of mouldy TCMs, summarized the internal and external factors of resulting in TCMs to become mouldy. Based on the above discussion, together with the characteristics and limitations of current TCM preservation techniques, we prospect novel, scientific and reasonable preservation techniques, expecting to provide references for scientific preservation of TCMs to avoid becoming mouldy and guarantee their qualities.
Drug Contamination ; prevention & control ; Drug Storage ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Fungi ; growth & development ; isolation & purification ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; microbiology

In order to effectively remove the invalid impurities in Tongan injection, optimize the optimal parameters of the impurity removal technology of liquid mixing process, in this paper, taking Tongan injection as the research object, with the contents of celandine alkali, and sinomenine, solids reduction efficiency, and related substances inspection as the evaluation indexes, the removal of impurities and related substances by the combined process of refrigeration, coction and activated carbon adsorption were investigated, the feasibility of the impurity removal method was definited and the process parameters were optimized. The optimized process parameters were as follows: refrigerated for 36 h, boiled for 15 min, activated carbon dosage of 0.3%, temperature 100 degrees C, adsorption time 10 min. It can effectively remove the tannin, and other impurities, thus ensure the quality and safety of products.
Adsorption ; Charcoal ; chemistry ; Drug Compounding ; instrumentation ; methods ; Drug Contamination ; prevention & control ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Quality Control

Microbial contamination, growth and reproduction have a great influence on the quality of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its preparation. TCM may be polluted by microbial in the production process due to ambient air, facilities and appliances and operating personnel, which affects the quality and efficacy of the final product. The GMP certification inspection standard of TCM manufacturing enterprises clearly established: "Sterilization methods of Chinese herbal medicine, intermediate products, finished products should follow the principle whether or not to change its quality", "TCM powder that used as medicine directly should follow the principle whether to do microbiological examinations". So it's particularly important for product quality, corporate energy consumption and its efficiency to choose the scientific and effective sterilization techniques and methods. Ozone is a kind of safe, environmentally friendly, efficient and no residue emerging sterilization technology. It has been widely applied in various fields of medical and health care and production and living. This paper mainly analyzed the ozone sterilization technology of TCM, aiming to explore the principle of ozone sterilization, the advantages, application status and existing problems and so on. The management regulations and implementation rules of ozone sterilization were summarized to make sterilization of Chinese medicine in the production, management, quality control and other aspects standardized, reasonable and scientific, and to provide the theoretical reference of the ozone sterilization technology for TCM and its preparation.
Bacteria ; drug effects ; growth & development ; Drug Contamination ; prevention & control ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Humans ; Ozone ; pharmacology ; Plants, Medicinal ; microbiology ; Sterilization ; methods

To establish a molecular identification method for Bletillae Rhizoma, this paper extracted genome DNA from Bletillae Rhizoma and its adulterants. The sequences of rDNA ITS2 were sequenced after amplifying. Then multiple alignments of ITS2 were constructed phylogenetic tree with Neighbor Joining by MEGA 5. 1 and found out SNPs loci. The result showed that rDNA ITS2 region could identify Bletillae Rhizoma and its adulterants. There existed the SNPs loci, which could identify Bletilla striata and B. ochracea. Furthermore, we designed specific primers against the SNPs loci of B. striata and B. ochracea, then screened primers and optimized the PCR amplification conditions. Finally, the DNA of B. striata and B. ochracea were specifically amplified by BJ59-412F, BJ59-412R and HHBJ-225R. The length of amplification products were respectively about 350 bp and 520 bp that were effectively identified of B. striata and B. ochracea. While, the adulterants of Bletillae Rhizoma were no-reaction occurring. To sum up, the amplification conditions of the primers can identify B. striata, B. ochracea and their adulterants successfully at the same time. This method was easy, time-saving, and reliable, which can be used as a rapid method for molecular identification of Bletillae Rhizoma.
Base Sequence ; DNA Primers ; genetics ; DNA, Intergenic ; genetics ; DNA, Plant ; genetics ; Drug Contamination ; prevention & control ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Orchidaceae ; classification ; genetics ; Phylogeny ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Rhizome ; classification ; genetics

Chinese medicinal authentication is fundamental for the standardization and globalization of Chinese medicine. The discipline of authentication addresses difficult issues that have remained unresolved for thousands of years, and is essential for preserving safety. Chinese medicinal authentication has both scientific and traditional cultural connotations; the use of scientific methods to elucidate traditional experience-based differentiation carries the legacy of Chinese medicine forward, and offers immediate practical significance and long-term scientific value. In this paper, a path of inheritance and innovation is explored through the scientific exposition of Chinese medicinal authentication, featuring a review of specialized publications, the establishment of a Chinese medicine specimen center and Chinese medicinal image databases, the expansion of authentication technologies, and the formation of a cultural project dedicated to the Compedium of Materia Medica.
Drug Contamination ; prevention & control ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; standards ; Humans ; Materia Medica ; chemistry ; standards ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; standards ; Reference Standards

According to ICH, Chinese Pharmacopoeia and supplementary requirements on the separation and purification of herbal extract with macroporous adsorption resin by SFDA, hexane, acetidine, ethanol, benzene, methyl-benzene, o-xylene, m-xylene, p-xylene, styrene, diethyl-benzene and divinyl-benzene of residual organic solvents and macroporous resin residues in Akebia saponin D were determined by headspace capillary GC. Eleven residues in Akebia saponin D were completely separated on DB-wax column, with FID detector, high purity nitrogen as the carry gases. The calibration curves were in good linearity (0.999 2-0.999 7). The reproducibility was good (RSD < 10%). The average recoveries were 80.0% -110%. The detection limit of each component was far lower than the limit concentration. The method is simple, reproducible, and can be used to determine the residual organic solvents and macroporous resin residues in Akebia saponin D.
Chromatography, Gas ; instrumentation ; methods ; Drug Contamination ; prevention & control ; Organic Chemicals ; analysis ; Reproducibility of Results ; Resins, Synthetic ; chemistry ; Saponins ; analysis ; isolation & purification

Maca (Lepidium meyenii) is an herbaceous plant that grows in high plateaus and has been used as both food and folk medicine for centuries because of its benefits to human health. In the present study, ITS (internal transcribed spacer) sequences of forty-three maca samples, collected from different regions or vendors, were amplified and analyzed. The ITS sequences of nineteen potential adulterants of maca were also collected and analyzed. The results indicated that the ITS sequence of maca was consistent in all samples and unique when compared with its adulterants. Therefore, this DNA-barcoding approach based on the ITS sequence can be used for the molecular identification of maca and its adulterants.
DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic ; methods ; DNA, Intergenic ; analysis ; DNA, Plant ; analysis ; Drug Contamination ; prevention & control ; Humans ; Lepidium ; genetics ; Phytotherapy

The macroporous resin separation technology has been mainly applied in the enrichment of saponins, flavonoids, alkaloids and other ingredients, and used in the removal of heavy metal impurities and pesticide residues in recent years. This paper focuses on the synthesis of the new-type macroporous adsorption resin LKS-11 according to the molecular structure characteristics of procymidone. Specifically, the selective absorptive property and other advantages of macroporous resin were utilized to analyze the procymidone removal efficiency in ginseng extracts from different sources. The type of macroporous resins, absorptive property and desorption conditions were observed respectively by static and dynamic adsorption methods to determined the optimum process conditions. According to the results, LKS-11 showed a good absorptive property to procymidone in ginseng extracts and provided a theoretical basis for studies on the removal of procymidone residues from ginseng extracts by using macroporous adsorption resin. Because of no secondary pollution on samples, low production and operation costs, high procymidone removal efficiency and high product recovery rate, this method is suitable to be applied in production.
Adsorption ; Bridged Bicyclo Compounds ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Chromatography ; instrumentation ; methods ; Drug Contamination ; prevention & control ; Drug Residues ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Fungicides, Industrial ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Panax ; chemistry ; Plant Extracts ; chemistry ; Porosity ; Resins, Synthetic ; chemistry