Emergent quality issues in the supply of Chinese medicinal plants: A mixed methods investigation of their contemporary occurrence and historical persistence

Quality issues that emerged centuries ago in Chinese medicinal plants (CMP) were investigated to explore why they still persist in an era of advanced analytical testing and extensive legislation so that a solution to improve CMP quality could be proposed. This is important for 85% of the world’s population who rely on medicinal plants (MP) for primary healthcare considering the adverse events, including fatalities that arise from such quality issues. CMP are the most prevalent medicinal plants globally. This investigation used mixed-methods, including 15 interviews with CMP expert key informants (KI), together with thematic analysis that identified the main CMP quality issues, why they persisted, and informed solutions. An unexplained case example, Eleutherococcus nodiflorus (EN), was analysed by collection of 106 samples of EN, its known toxic adulterant Periploca sepium (PS), and a related substitute, Eleutherococcus senticosus (ES), across mainland China, Taiwan and the UK. Authenticity of the samples was determined using High-performance thinlayer chromatography. Misidentification, adulteration, substitution and toxicity were the main CMP quality issues identified. Adulteration was found widespread globally with 57.4% EN found authentic, and 24.6% adulterated with cardiotoxic PS, mostly at markets and traditional pharmacies. The EN study further highlighted that the reason CMP quality issues persisted was due to the laboratory-bound nature of analytical methods and testing currently used that leave gaps in detection throughout much of the supply chain. CMP quality could be more effectively tested with patented analytical technology (PAT) and simpler field-based testing including indicator strip tests. Education highlighting the long-term economic value and communal benefit of delivering better quality CMP to consumers was recommended in favour of the financial motivation for actions that lead to the persistence of well-known and recurrent CMP quality issues

Optimal Sensor Selection for Classifying a Set of Ginsengs Using Metal-Oxide Sensors

The sensor selection problem was investigated for the application of classification of a set of ginsengs using a metal-oxide sensor-based homemade electronic nose with linear discriminant analysis. Samples (315) were measured for nine kinds of ginsengs using 12 sensors. We investigated the classification performances of combinations of 12 sensors for the overall discrimination of combinations of nine ginsengs. The minimum numbers of sensors for discriminating each sample set to obtain an optimal classification performance were defined. The relation of the minimum numbers of sensors with number of samples in the sample set was revealed. The results showed that as the number of samples increased, the average minimum number of sensors increased, while the increment decreased gradually and the average optimal classification rate decreased gradually. Moreover, a new approach of sensor selection was proposed to estimate and compare the effective information capacity of each sensor