Analysis of Harmful Elements in Herbal Medicines by ICPE-9800 Series

Introduction

Herbal medicines, products consisting of animals and plants, fungi, and minerals with naturally occurring efficacy, are used without purification as drugs (overthe- counter drugs), foods, functional foods, and dietary supplements. Safety standards for harmful elements used in pharmaceuticals are provided for in each country. Table 1 shows examples of regulations regarding the permissible levels of harmful elements in herbal medicines, including the levels suggested by WHO1) and the import/export reference values of China2). Here, using the Shimadzu ICPE-9800 series multi-type ICP atomic emission spectrometer, we conducted an analysis of an herbal medicine. The ICPE-9800 series, with its mini-torch plasma and spectrometer which permits all element/all wavelength simultaneous analysis, provides high sensitivity, high precision, and high throughput at low cost.

April 22, 2015 GMT