Testing of Herbal Leachate

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To maintain the original efficacy of traditional formulations while meeting the requirements of modern formulations, the ability to reach out to the comprehensive active parts of herbal materials that reflect the main functions and treatments has become an essential aspect of formulation improvement. Due to the complex composition of herbal medicines, the active ingredients' type, quantity, and strength in most herbal medicines are unknown or incompletely understood and are even more difficult to quantify. Therefore, Lifeasible offers its customers a range of services for the determination of leachate and the content of herbs, and we are actively developing indicators for the evaluation of factors affecting leaching and the leaching effect of herbs to assist you in the rational application and study of herbal preparations.

Testing of herbal leachate

Leachate determination

UV standard curve method. We first prepare a solution of a certain concentration of a standard substance, which is then prepared as a series of standard solutions. The absorbance of each common solution is measured at a certain wavelength, and the standard curve is plotted using the absorbance value as the vertical coordinate and the concentration value of the standard solution as the horizontal coordinate. Finally, the absorbance value of the sample solution is measured according to the standard curve plotting procedure, and the concentration or content of the sample solution is found on the standard curve.
High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). We inject the sample into a polar or non-polar aqueous or organic solvent mobile phase and pass it through a stationary phase column. This column separates the sample components based on chemical properties such as molecular weight, polarity, and charge. We can detect these components by one or more methods, such as UV-visible (UV-vis), mass spectrometry (MS), refractive index, and fluorescence. HPLC can separate compounds regardless of their volatility. The limitation is that no single detector can detect all molecules.

Content determination of different leachates

Water-soluble leachates. We first crush the test specimen for the assay, then leach and weigh it quickly and precisely using the cold and hot leaching methods. The water-soluble leachate content (%) was calculated on a dry basis.
Alcohol soluble leachate. Determined according to the water-soluble leachate determination method, using the corresponding concentration of ethanol instead of water as the solvent for each species.
Volatile ether leachate.

Figure 1. Determination procedure for volatile ether leachate content.

Evaluation of the leaching effect

Solvent type, dosage, number, and time of leaching are the main factors affecting the leaching effect of herbs. We commonly use the total leachate yield and the content of the main active ingredients as indicators for evaluating the leaching effect. We can develop practical leaching process conditions for you using object-specific experimental studies.

Please feel free to contact Lifeasible to start your project as soon as possible.

For research or industrial raw materials, not for personal medical use!