The Role of the European Pharmacopoeia(Ph Eur)in Quality Control of Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine in European Member States

In order to assure the safety and efficacy of the Chinese Medicines in Europe, the quality of TCM herbals should be guaranteed so that they can be freely imported in the European Union and other Western European Countries which are signatories of the European Pharmacopoeia Convention. Consequently, new Ph Eur TCM herbal drug Monographs should be elaborated, based on preexisting Monographs in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia(Ch P) 2010.Such a program has been inaugurated in 2005 by the Ph Eur Groups of Experts 13 A and B(Phytochemistry). Since then good progress has been made, elaborating of about one third of the originally proposed 100 TCM herbals being identified as important monographs for the European Market. Taking into account the many challenges still laying ahead, the establishment of a specialized Working Party(WP) on TCM with specialists and experts from many EU Member States has been decided by the Ph Eur Commission in 2008 which is highly active ever since in the examination and elaboration of new TCM herbal drug monographs, primarily to assure the safety of the European patient and further to provide quality parameters extremely important for all registration and licensing procedures of the respective National Authorities all over Europe.This paper is a survey of results and difficulties obtained so far which has been encountered meanwhile in the elaboration process by the Ph Eur TCM WP of these monographs and will discuss these in detail. Moreover the role of Ph Eur TCM monographs in the European community is addressed.

Application of UHPLCMS/ MS method in determining the content of multiingredient in hospital preparations

In the present study, we established an ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry （UHPLC-MS/MS） method to simultaneously determine 11 compounds in two hospital preparations （Shegan mixture and Gandi capsules）, including ephedrine, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, rutin, scutellarin, belamcandin, baicalin, baicalein, astragaloside IV, irisflorentin and wogonin. The chromatographic separation was conducted on ZORBAX SB-C18 （2.1 mm×50 mm, 1.8 μm）. Eleven analytes and IS were detected using ESI and MRM combined with positive and negative scanning switch. Caffeic acid, ferulic acid, scutellarin and belamcandin were detected using negative ion mode detection, whereas ephedrine, rutin, baicalin, baicalein, astragaloside IV, irisflorentin and wogonin were detected using positive ion mode detection. The quantification limits of ephedrine, caffeic acid, scutellarin, belamcandin, baicalin, baicalein, irisfiorentin and wogonin were 4.90×10^-3 ng/mL, 7.80 ng/mL, 6.8 ng/mL, 5.3×10^-2 ng/mL, 4.20×10^-3 ng/mL, 4.6×10^-2 ng/mL, 1.44×10^-4 ng/mL, 4.85 ng/mL, 0.23 ng/mL, 3.18× 10^-4 ng/mL and 2.95× 10^-4 ng/mL, respectively. The detection limits of these components were 2.90× 10^-4 ng/mL, 0.77 ng/mL, 2.0 ng/mL, 0.016 ng/mL, 1.3×10^-3 ng/mL, 3.33×10^-4 ng/mL, 4.32×10^-5 ng/mL, 1.46 ng/mL, 0.07 ng/mL, 9.5×10^-5 ng/mL and 8.84× 10^-5 ng/mL, respectively. All calibration curves showed good linearity （R^2〉0.99） within the test range. The RSD values of intra-day and inter-day precision were less than 5%, and the average recovery rates of the 11 components ranged fi＇om 80% to 120%. In conclusion, our newly developed method was simple, rapid, sensitive and accurate. It could be used to determine ephedrine, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, rutin, scutellarin, belamcandin, baicalin, baicalein, astragaloside IV, irisflorentin and wogonin in Shegan mixture and Gandi capsules, which was helpful for the quality control of drugs.