Herbal Drug Quality Control at Soongnern Hospital, Nakhon Ratchasima Province

Abstract

To control herbal drug quaity, produced by Soongnem Hospital and provide high qualified herbal drugs to consumers, five high consuming berbal drugs in pill form; Curcuma longa (Kha-Min-Chan), Andrographis paniculata (Fa-Tha-Lai-Jone), Prab-Chom-Phu-Tha-Weep, Modified exhansted formula (Khae-Puad-Muang) and Sa-Hat-So-The-Rha-Rha, were analyzed in 3 aspects; weight variation (WV), disintegration time (DI) and microbial limited test (MLT) This analysis was conducted from February 1995 to February 1996. Two packs (250 pills per pack) of each types were sampling; first time, during 3 months affer production, 43 lots and repeated second time, during 12 months after production, 40 lots. It was found that 34 lots (79.1%) of first time and 36 lots (90.0%) of second time were passed  standard criteria of all 3 aspects. Microbial analysis was found only aerobic bacteria during the former lots of production that was passed during the latter after improvement of production process. The shelf life ofherbal drugs by microbial limited test criteria was approximately 6-10 months. The next analysis should concern the samping increasing time, the characteristic active components of herbal drugs and the humidity quantity to control microbial content.