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.

Ozone treatment was applied to ginseng powder for the improving hygienic quality of ginseng powder. A bacterial strain was isolated form ginseng powder contaminated. The strain designated as GT4, was identified as Escherichia coli species by IMVIC test method. Ozone inhibited strongly total bacteria and coliforms in ginseng powder(initial concentration 10³/g) at 0.35 ppm. High ozone concentration reduced death time of the total bacteria in ginseng powder. However, ozone treatment caused significant degradation in saponins of ginseng powder. Ozone treatment also caused a increase in Hunter's color L value and decrease in a and b values of ginseng powder.

Dry rehydratable film (Petrifilm) method was compared with the standard pate count (SPC) method for estimation of total bacteria in ginseng products. Ginseng products (7 sample) was analyzed for total count by the SPC, and Petrifilm methods, respectively. In the case of ginseng tea, ginseng extract, ginseng extract pill, ginseng powder capsule, and ginseng extract tea,. they showed non-significant values at the 1 level. However, the values of ginseng powder and tablet showed significant at the 1 level. These results generally indicate the suitability of the dry rehydratable film methods as alternatives to the SPC method for estimating of total bacteria in ginseng product samples except to ginseng powder and ginseng tablet.

Background : This study of investigate the quality characteristics of Korean Dioscoreae Rhizoma by species and various processing methods. We used two types of species D. Rhizoma, which were the long type shape of D. batatas and short type shape of D. japoninca, respectively. Methods and Results : The reaction of D. Rhizoma with acetic acid and iodine showed light blue to blue colours, respectively. When compared with loss of drying between two species, the long type species was about 2% more higher than that of short type of species. When compared with processing methods, the both steamed and dried samples was more higher 2.0 - 3.0% than that of non-steamed samples. The contents of acid-insoluble ash samples with peel was relatively higher than that of samples containing no-peel. The results of TLC analysis also showed the same Rf and colours when compared with the standard of D. Rhizoma. However, both dried sample with peel (DWP) showed more clear spot than those of dried sample except peel (DEP) and both steamed and dried sample except peel (SDEP). Conclusion : We sincerely hope that this study will be contributed to the standardization and quality control of korean herbal medicines.

Background: Leonurine is a the aerial part of Leonurus japonicus Houttuyn, which has been used as a traditional medicines and is registered in the Korean Pharmacopoeia.Methods and Results:In the present study we performed a heavy metals and thin layer chromatography and measured loss on drying, as well as the contents of total ash, acid-insoluble ash, ethanol soluble compounds, and leonurine, using 15 domestically collected L. japonicus samples. The methods were performed according to the ‘crude drugs test of the general test, processes and apparatus’, published by MFDS, Korea (2014). The purity test (heavy metals) indicated that levels of Pb and Hg were 0.35 - 3.64, and 0.001 ppm, respectively, whereas the levels of As and Cd were undetectable, and stachydrine was identified by thin layer chromatography (Rf : 0.15). We found that 5.93 - 10.62% (average: 8.58 ± 1.8%) of the sample mass was lost during drying, and the contents of total ash, acid-insoluble ash, ethanol soluble compounds, and leonurine were 7.87 - 10.84% (average: 9.62 ± 0.82%), 0.99 - 1.76% (average: 1.38 ± 0.24%), 16.70 - 23.11% (average: 19.49 ± 2.14%) and 0.04 - 0.17% (average: 0.11 ± 0.04%) respectively. In addition, HPLC profiling detected leonurine (5.94 min), rutin (16.43 min) and myricetin (26.78 min).Conclusions:We hope that this the rusult of the present study will contribute to the standardization and quality control of Korean herbal medicines.