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Herbal Services and Solutions | Herbalist | Supplier | Herbs

Jul 24

Quality Control Raw Material Testing – Step 1

Herbal Medicine Products like Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine

Quality control raw material testing

KP herb purchasers buy only the freshest, finest herbs available from the People’s Republic of China. Herb conformity and origin is verified by experienced botanists, in Taiwan and in Europe.

KP performs the following methods of authentication on raw herbs:

Quality Control Raw Material Testing

Appearance: On-site experts determine the species by the herb’s exterior characteristics, including color size, scent and texture.

Microscopic analysis: Laboratories examine the herb under high magnification, including the grain of the herb at cross-sections, the consistency of the herb as powder, its cell shape and its behavior under chemical dissociation.

Physical/chemical identification: Laboratories determine species under a battery of advanced chemical and physical tests, including appearance under fluorescent light, performance under distillation, results from color chromatography, spectrometric analysis, loss weight on drying, ash content, percent of insoluble ash in liquid and the amount of extracted water and diluted alcohol extract.

Quality Control Raw Material TestingChemical Fingerprinting: KP’s quality control divisions make abundant use of chemical fingerprinting methods. Chemical fingerprinting separates chemical components and matches them to standards, enabling species identity matches. The variety and history of Chinese herbs is complex. It would be nearly impossible to accurately and consistently determine the species identity of all herbs without the assistance of chemical fingerprinting techniques. KP has invested heavily in chemical fingerprinting technologies, as it plays a vital role in safety and the future of the herbal industry. KP applies the techniques of Thin-layer chromatography (TLC), High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to authenticate the species identity of herbs.

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Step Two