Quality stability of the herb pill coated with edible oils containing rosemary was investigated. Herb pills were made of herb powders such as Panax ginseng, Cinnamomum cassia, Lycium chinense, Zyzyphus jujuba and Zingiber officinale. Rapeseed oil and lubriol were used as edible coating oil. After herb pills coated with edible oils with or without rosemary were stored at 40℃ for 180 days, the microbial viable cell counts and peroxide values(POV) of the herb pill were investigated. After 180 day storage, POVs of herb pills with only rapeseed oil or lubriol were 0.51 and 0.49 meq/kg, respectively. However, when rosemary was added in herb pills the POVs were decreased to 0.30 and 0.39 meq/kg, respectively. The addition of rosemary to the rapeseed oil and lubriol tended to decrease the microbial viable cell counts of the herb pill. The microbial viable cell counts of rapeseed oil and lubriol were 940 and 820CFU/g, respectively after 180 days of storage. However, these levels were suppressed to 720 and 640CFU/g by the resemary addition. On the other hand, the ginseng saponin content of herb pills was not affected by the rosemary addition during storage.

생약제 농축액의 품질 안정성을 확보하기 위한 기초자료를 제공하고자 생약제 농축액에서 수분 활성도 변화에 따른 미생물 성장 변화 및 일부 이화학적 특성 변화를 조사하였다. 수분활성도를 각각 0.86, 0.80, 0.69로 조정한 생약제 농축액을 40℃에서 180일 동안 저장한 후 세균의 생균수를 측정한 결과 수분활성도 0.86(수분활성도 63.85%)시료의 경우 초기생균수가 18/g에서 90일 저장시 80/g으로 180일 저장시 190/g으로 증가하였다. 수분활성도 0.80(수분함량 43.04%) 경우에는 초기생균수가 24/g에서 90일 저장시 83/g으로, 180일 저장시 170/g으로 증가하였다. 그러나 수분활성도 0.69(수분함량 33.05%)경우에는 초기생균수가 16/g에서 90일 및 180일 저장시 각각 20/g, 25/g으로 큰 균수 증가를 나타내지 않았다. 한편 수분활성도에 따른 병원성 미생물의 성장은 수분활성도가 낮을수록 저해되었으며 C. albicans, A. niger의 경우 28℃에서 30일 저장 후 초기생균수가 150/g, 140/g에서 각각 30/g, 20/g으로 크게 감소하였고, E. coli, S. aureus, P. aeruginosa의 경우에도 수분활성도 0.69 시료에서는 37℃에서 30일 저장 후 생균수가 0로 나타나서 균은 완전히 사멸되었다. 수분활성도 0.85, 0.80, 0.69시료에서 pH 의 변화는 180일 저장시의 pH에서 초기 pH를 뺀 pH의 감소폭이 자각 0.84, 0.72, 0.31로 나타나서 수분활성도가 낮을수록 pH의 감소폭이 적은 경향이었다. 생약제 농축액에 포함된 인삼 중의 지표성분인 사포닌은 180일 저장한 시료에서 측정한 사포닌함량에서 저장초기 시료의 함량을 뺀 사포닌함량의 감소폭은 0.12~0.30%로 나타나서 비교적 작은 편이었다. 또한 생약제 농축액에 감미료, 산미료 등의 첨가물을 첨가하여 40℃에서 60일 및 180일 동안 저장한 후 TLC로 사포닌을 조사한 결과 모든 사포닌이 확인되어 이러한 조건에서 사포닌은 안정한 것으로 생각된다.

Alcohol treatment was applied to ginseng powder for the improving hygienic quality of ginseng powder. A bacterial strain designated as GT5 was isolated from ginseng powder contaminated and was identified as Escherichia coli species by IMVIC test method. Ethanol used as alcohol, inhibited strongly the growth of coliforms in ginseng powder at the concentrations of 50 to 90%. Ethanol treatment also decreased numbers of total bacteria at the same concentrations. There was not significant changes in saponin of ginseng powder after treated with ethanol. However, ethanol treatment caused a decrease in Hunter's color L value and an increase in a and b values of ginseng powder. As a hygienic quality control of ginseng powder, ethanol treatment could be considered as an effective means for decontaminating microorganisms in ginseng powder.

One kind of fungus was isolated and identified from comtaminated red-ginseng in order to give fundermental data for improving hygienic quality of ginseng product. The isolated strain was identified as Aspergillus sp. Hyphae of the strain had septum structure. The strain showed vesicle and aterigmata structure which were typical characteristics of Aspergillus species. The growth of the strain was slightly inhibited by sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate at a concentration of 0.05%. The strain showed no growth at 4.0% potassium sorbate. The isolated strain Aspergillus sp. showed no significant degradation in the presence of red-ginseng saponins.