Method to ascertain the quality of herbs
AssigneeAdvanced Gene Technology, Corp.
InventorsLi-Wei Hsu, Su-Chen Chang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a novel method useful for fast separation and quick identification of active ingredients in herbs. The separation procedures are efficient without tedious and time-consuming works by using chromatographies or HPLC. The present invention further relates to a method for ascertaining the quality of herbs by applying treated plastic slides on quality control of herbal fractions, based on identification of their biological activities.
Claims39
A method for determining the presence or absence of an ingredient of interest in an herb or a multiplicity of herbs that specifically binds to a probe, comprising the steps of:
- (a) extracting the herb or a multiplicity of herbs with a solvent to obtain an herbal extract followed by concentrating the herbal extract by evaporation;
- (b) mixing the concentrated herbal extract with water and a water-miscible organic solvent followed by removing resultant insoluble particulates to obtain fraction A;
- (c) retaining a first portion of fraction A and mixing a second portion of fraction A with water and a water-immiscible organic solvent and separating phases to obtain an organic fraction B and an aqueous fraction E;
- (d) retaining a first portion of fraction B and mixing water with a second portion of fraction B and conducting partition extraction to obtain an organic fraction C and an aqueous fraction D;
- (e) retaining a first:
- portion of fraction E and mixing a water-immiscible organic solvent with a second portion of fraction E and conducting partition extraction to obtain an organic fraction F and an aqueous fraction G;
- (f) loading at separate locations on a plastic slide at least a portion of each of fractions A to G;
- and
- (g) contacting said slide with said probe and detecting any binding of said probe, thereby detecting the presence or absence of an ingredient that specifically binds said probe in said herbal extract fractions.
A method for visualizing each of a multiplicity of fractions displayed on a surface, wherein said fractions have been obtained by a series of partition extraction steps performed on an extract of said herb multiplicity of herbs, wherein said partition extraction steps performed comprise:
- (a) extracting the herb multiplicity of herbs with a solvent to obtain an herbal extract followed by concentrating the herbal extract by evaporation;
- (b) mixing the concentrated herbal extract with water and a water-miscible organic solvent followed by removing resultant insoluble particulates to obtain fraction A;
- (c) retaining a first portion of fraction A and mixing a second portion of fraction A with water and a water-immiscible organic solvent and separating phases to obtain an organic fraction B and at aqueous fraction B;
- (d) retaining a first portion of fraction B and mixing water with a second portion of fraction B and conducting partition extraction to obtain an organic fraction C and an aqueous fraction D;
- (e) retaining a first portion of fraction E and mixing a water-immiscible organic solvent with a second portion of fraction B and conducting partition extraction to obtain an organic fraction F and an aqueous fraction G and
- (f) loadings plastic slide with at least a portion of each of fractions A to G.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.