Quality Control for the Analysis of Heavy Metals in Herbal Medicine

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Research article

Journal of the Korean Society for Environmental Analysis 2012;15(4):275-281.

한약재중 중금속 분석의 정도관리에 관한 연구

황병훈¹, 강호철², 서용찬¹, 전인철³

¹상지대학교
²한국화학연구원
³인천재능대학교

Abstract

Control measures for the analysis of toxic compounds such as metals, and sulfur dioxide should be developed to assure the safety of herbal medicines. Various herbal medicine was properly selected and analysed by KFDA and other methods. Samples either prepared by microwave or hot plate digestions were analysed by AA (either flame or furnace), ICP, and/or ICP-MS. Method detection limits for various metals and methods were reviewed based on applicability of these methods on the equivalency of KFDA methods. Proper quality control criteria for matrix spike recoveries (accuracy indicator) will be 70~130% for metal analysis in herbal medicine. Relative errors expressed in relative percent difference for duplicate analysis (precision indicator) will be 15%for the same analysis. Laboratories for herbal medicine analysis can produce and report reliable data by implementing proper standardized quality control (QC) measures.

Key Words: Quality control, herbal medicine, heavy metal