Study On Pretreatment Of Clarification With Extracting Solution From Silkworm Dropping

In order to develop modern extraction and separation method for traditional Chinese medicine which is one of the three bottlenecks in Chinese traditional medicine modernization, experiments on pretreatment of clarification with extracting solution from silkworm dropping, produced by one pharmaceutical factory in Tianjin, were carried out in this work considering characteristics of medicine source and quality requirements of medicine preparation.Basic physical properties of extracting solution from silkworm dropping were determined to analyze factors affecting performance of clarification with extracting solution from silkworm dropping. The results showed that the solid and the liquid phases of the solution were difficult to separate due to low solid content, small particle diameter, and tiny difference of densities of two phases, therefore, pretreatment of the solution was necessary in the clarification process.Pretreatment with extracting solution from silkworm dropping were carried out via freeze-thaw method and ultrasonic method, and the performance of clarification were measured by transmittance, content of polysaccharide and protein, yield of active ingredients. Three methods were used in the freeze-thaw pretreatment: microwave thaw, air thaw and 40℃water bath thaw, and results showed that microwave thaw method had the best performance. For the new process in which freeze-thaw pretreatment was added, the transmittance of processed solution was increased approximately 10%, and the content of polysaccharide and protein was decreased nearly 10%. Orthogonal test was applied in the pretreatment process via ultrasonic method to observe the effects of ultrasonic power, processing time, and processing temperature on the performance of clarification with extracting solution. Experimental results showed that the optimal operating conditions of the ultrasonic pretreatment process were the ultrasonic power 30~40W, the processing time 20 minutes, and the processing temperature 20℃. And the transmittance of processed solution was increased approximately 5%, the content of polysaccharide and protein was decreased nearly 15% and 20% respectively. Both the freeze-thaw pretreatment process and ultrasonic pretreatment process could improve the performance of clarification with extracting solution from silkworm dropping by promoting agglomeration of suspending particles in the solution. These two pretreatment processes could remove impurities excellently while kept the active ingredients in the extracting solution. The yield of active ingredients was 97% for the freeze-thaw pretreatment process and 99% for the ultrasonic pretreatment process.The freeze-thaw pretreatment process had better performance in improving transmittance of processed extracting solution, while for the yield of active ingredients and the depressing of content of polysaccharide and protein, the ultrasonic pretreatment process owned obvious advantages. At the same time the energy consumption of ultrasonic pretreatment process was less than that of freeze-thaw pretreatment process. Therefore, the ultrasonic pretreatment process was more economical and appropriate than the freeze-thaw pretreatment process.This work proposed a technological method of improving the performance of clarification with extracting solution from silkworm dropping, and built theoretical and experimental foundation for the improvement of clarification technology with traditional Chinese medicine preparation.