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.