Study Of Specification And Grade Standard Of Coptis Based On Its Quality

The specification and grade of Chinese herbal medicine commoditys is a comprehensive reflection of Chinese herbal medicine’s quality, is the conclusion of past- dynasties doctors’ experience, is the important basis of evaluation of herbal medicine’s quality.Dividing the specification and grade of Chinese herbal medicine commodity not only plays an important role in the market circulation and in ensuring clinical medication safety,but also is an indispensable part of traditional Chinese medicine quality control system.The Specifications and Standards on 76 Kinds of Medicinal commodities enacted in 1984, defined the level of 76 kinds of commonly used traditional Chinese medicine, providing proofs for ensuring the high quality and reasonable price of traditional Chinese herbal medicine and for the price decided by the quality.But there are also defects about it such as inadequate proof for defining the relationship between the appearance, traits and the immanent quality of herbal medicine, as the unreasonable standard classification.At the same time, there are no clear standards of commodity specificat-ions and grades for most Chinese herbal medicines currently. As the grades are in chaos and classification standard is not specified, most people judge with their experience and perception, lacking systematic science, which has not been widely recognized. This restricted the development of the commodity’s specification and grade standard in the standard evaluation system of Chinese herbal medicine quality, disturbed the market circulation of Chinese herbal medicine, hindered the establishment of e-commerce trading platform of Chinese herbal medicine.Therefore, carrying out research on specification and grade standard of Chinese herbal medicine commodity and establishing the commodity specification and grade standard according to its inner quality is a key problem to be solved in the trading field of Chinese herbal medicine commodities.With a Chinese herbal medicine: coptis chinensis as the model and the main commodity- coptis chinensis Franch as the research object,this study has carried on an on-the-spot investigation of different medicinal origins and medicine markets and collected 638 pieces of single-branch coptis chinensis and 49 pieces of chicken-feet-like coptis chinensis as samples and confirmed that the main specifications of coptis chinensis Franch are single-branch coptis chinensis and chicken-feet-like coptis chinensis. According to different commodity types and samples, this study has used ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry to determine the total alkaloid content in the samples,used high performance liquid chromatography to determine the content of seven alkaloids: Berberine and hydrastine, Martin, root base, table berberine, magnolia alkali, Africa alkali on the basis of testing the qualification of their source, identification, moisture, total ash, pesticide residues and heavy metals.They were extracted from the samples according to the traditional commodity identification features of coptis chinensis and The Specifications and Standards on 76 Kinds of Medicinal commoditys.With the aid of excel and spass 19.0 software, correlation analysis between inner quality and external properties of chicken-feet-like coptis chinensis and single-branch coptis chinensis are carried out according to the continuous variables and classification variables and with the total alkaloids as inner quality standard. The results are as followings:(1)The total alkaloids content of single-branch coptis chinensis is obviously correlated with the continuous variables as bridge length, herbs’ diameter and herbs’ length( P<0.05), obviously correlated with classification variables as powder color, xylem color and medulla color(P<0.05).Hierarchy intervals of the bridge length, the herbs’ diameter, the herbs’ length are respectively achieved through clustering analysis of their two grades according to traditional hierarchy standard while the hierarchy standards of single- branch coptis chinensis in first grade and second grade are achieved by comprehensively analysing three hierarchy intervals of external properties. They are:① first grade: single-branch diameter bigger than 3.5 mm, single-branch length between 25—60mm, the bridge length shorter than 15 mm, xylem of golden color and medulla of red and yellow color,powder of tan or red and yellow.② second grade: single-branch diameter smaller than 3.5 mm, single-branch length smaller than 25 mm or bigger than 60 mm and the bridge length bigger than 15 mm, xylem of claybank color and medulla of brown or tan(2)The total alkaloids content of chicken-feet-like coptis chinensis is obviously correlated with the continuous variables as the weight of chicken feet, the numbers of chicken feet in one single branch(P<0.05), obviously correlated with level variables as powder color, xylem color and medulla color(P<0.05).Hierarchy intervals of the weight of chicken feet, the numbers of chicken feet in one single branchare are respectively achieved through clustering analysis of their two grades according to traditional hierarchy standard while the hierarchy standards of single- branch chicken-feet-like coptis chinensis in first grade and second grade are achieved by comprehensively analysing three hierarchy intervals of their external properties.They are:① first grade: chicken feet with no gap or the length of it no longer than 15mm(if any) the weight of chicken feet bigger than 8.5 g, the numbers of chicken feet in one single branch more than 6, diameter of chicken feet bigger than 30 mm and length of it between 25 mm and 60 mm,xylem of golden color and medulla of red and yellow color,powder of tan or red and yellow.② second grade:chicken feet with gaps,the weight of chicken feet smaller than 8.5 g, the numbers of chicken feet in one single branch lessthan 6, diameter of chicken feet smaller than 30 mm and length of it smaller than 25 mm or bigger than 60 mm, the length of gaps bigger than 15 mm, xylem of golden color and medulla of red and yellow color,powder of tan or red and yellow. Generally, when testing the total content of alkaloids, it is more than 16% in first-grade single-branch coptis chinensis and it is between 7% and 16% in second-grade ones. Moreover, for chicken-feet-like coptis chinensis, it is more than 13% in first-grade ones and between 7% and 13% in second-grade ones.This thesis defines the specifications and grades of the coptis chinensis according to the enacted specification and grade standards. There are 138 samples of first-grade single-branch coptis chinensis and 465 samples of second-grade ones and are 15 samples of chicken-feetlike coptis chinensis and 17 samples of second-grade ones.S- N- K method is used to statistically analyse total alkaloid content of obtained samples of different commodity grades.The results have significant differences, hinting that the classification standards of coptis chinensis commodity specifications and grades are feasible.This thesis formulates classification standards of coptis chinensis( coptis chinensis Franch) specifications and grades(draft) based on above research results,which is hopeful for providing scientific proofs in formulating the national standard of coptis chinensis(coptis chinensis Franch).