Study On Specification And Quality Evaluation Standard Of Cortex Moutan

Cortex Moutan (Pharmaceutical Name) is the dried bark of Paeonia suffruticosaAndr. which belongs to the family of Ranunculaceae.There are two ways of makingCortex Moutan: First one is excavating the roots of peony tree in autumn, removingthe fine roots and sediment on them, stripping bark from the roots and finally drying.The second way is scrapping rough bark of the roots, removing the wooden heart, thendrying. Cortex Moutan which is made in the first way is often called Cortex Moutanwith epidermis,latter one is called Cortex Moutan without epidermis.Clinicalindications： Febrile diseases, eruption exanthem, bleeding, anhidrosis, Menstrualdisorders or dysmenorrheal, Peri-appendicular abscess and skin infection. In order tocontrol quality of Cortex Moutan slices, this essay is working on the quality standardand fingerprints of crude and slices of Cortex Moutan.This topic which intends to study systematically on the quality standard of crudeand pieces of Cortex Moutan from different origins, is a sub subject of “Research intothe specification and quality evaluation standard of30types of TCM pieces”——thespecial research topics of national TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) industry.Specific research projects: According to the Cortex Moutan sample, observe theshape characteristics of it; doing TLC identification with the help of referencesubstance; Refer to the2010edition of "Chinese Pharmacopoeia", study on watercontent, total ash, extract(choose ethanol as solvent) etc. Based on the results, shapefeatures of Cortex Moutan have been given, at the same time TLC identification, TLCand HPLC fingerprints also have been established. According to experimental data, thewater content of it is between8.5%-9.5%, total ash content is between2.36%-4.70%,extract is in the range of26.83%-30.87%. Then the temporary conclusion is that watercontent shall not exceed13%of the medicine, the total ash not more than5%of it,extract shall not be less than15%.This essay also does fingerprint research on the main active ingredients of Cortex Moutan——paeonol and paeoniflorin. Studying method of it is simple, sensitive,and reproducible. The comparison between the reference substances of paeonol andpaeoniflorin, help to determine the common peaks of Cortex Moutan from differentorigins in the fingerprint, while paeonol and paeoniflorin are characteristic peak(paeonol account for the most in Cortex Moutan). Take peak height value to indicatesthe relative content of each component. It can be determined by peak height that thequality of samples,no matter crude medicine or pieces, from Bozhou are greatlydifferent from samples from other places. While the differences among crude medicineand pieces of other places is unobvious.The results of this study will provide a scientific foundation for the establishmentof quality standards of Cortex Moutan pieces.