title: Strategies for quality control of Chinese medicines.
abstract: Chinese medicines (CM) have been attracting interest and acceptance in many countries. Quality control is vital for ensuring the safety and efficacy of CM. Usually, CM are used as whole plant and/or combination of several herbs, and multiple constituents are responsible for the therapeutic effects. Therefore, quality control of CM is very difficult. To date, the valid method for quantitatively evaluating the quality of CM is poor. In this article, the strategies for quantification, related to the markers, reference compounds and approaches, in quality control of CM were reviewed and discussed.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Quality Research in Chinese Medicine and Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China. lishaoping@hotmail.com
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods; D002623:Chemistry Techniques, Analytical / Q000379:methods; D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical / Q000379:methods*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods; D019587:Dietary Supplements / Q000032:analysis; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods*; D008518:Medicine, East Asian Traditional / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D011786:Quality Control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal