JPH0258990B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a method for removing impurities from Chinese herbal medicines,
Specifically, the present invention relates to a method for continuously and effectively removing impurities contained in Chinese herbal medicines.

Chinese herbal medicines (hereinafter referred to as herbal medicines) are produced in a wide range of countries, mainly China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and it is said that there are several hundred types of them that are used for medicinal purposes. Although herbal medicines come in a wide variety of forms and properties, most of them are made from plant roots, leaves, fruits, and bark, and some contain animal substances. Furthermore, since the forms and properties of impurities contained in crude drugs vary widely,
Removal of impurities mainly relies on manual sorting, and its rationalization is desired.

That is, as mentioned above, crude drugs are collected mainly by hand in mountain villages all over the country, dried in the sun, packaged, and shipped. Therefore, herbal medicines include human hair, feathers, earth and sand, stones, straw, animal feces, metal pieces,
Herbal medicines are often shipped from the place where they are produced because they are contaminated with glass pieces, vinyl, and other foreign substances, and insects lay eggs during transportation or storage, and they are also eaten by rats. In its current state, it cannot be used medicinally as it is, and is used to remove various impurities. However, herbal medicines come in extremely diverse shapes such as soybean-like, fine-grained, carrot-like, leaf-like, bulb-like, and entwined with fine roots, and they are often contaminated with the various impurities mentioned above. Currently, except for certain items, the careful sorting work is carried out manually on a sorting table.

The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and specifically, to continuously and effectively remove such complicated and difficult contaminants, and in particular:
To provide a removal method that can be efficiently carried out while minimizing dependence on manual sorting.

That is, in the present invention, while the packaged herbal medicines are continuously transported, they are sequentially inspected and unsealed, stored in a certain container and temporarily stored, and then at least two or more kinds of herbal medicines are stored. At least one item from the contaminant screening line that is compatible with Chinese herbal medicines
The method is characterized in that impurities are mechanically removed through two sorting lines and then stored as semi-finished products, and then, if necessary for shipping, foreign substances are identified and removed from the semi-finished products at least by color, and then manually sorted. do.

Therefore, according to the method of the present invention, contaminants are mechanically removed from the crude drug in a suitable sorting line among at least two types of sorting lines depending on the nature of the contaminants, prior to manual sorting. Impurities can be effectively removed.

In addition, mechanically sorted herbal medicines are not sent to the next process, but are stored in designated containers in intermediate warehouses, and removed from the warehouses as needed for shipping to remove impurities that could not be removed mechanically. The materials are identified and separated using a sorter or the like based on factors such as shape, and then manually sorted by visual inspection or the like. Therefore, the mechanical sorting process can be performed independently of manual sorting, etc., and the mechanical sorting process can be configured rationally.

The present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to FIG.

First, FIG. 1 is a flow sheet according to one embodiment of the present invention, and the packaged crude drug is, for example,
While being transported on a truck 1 and being conveyed continuously, for example, by a conveyor, the weighing 2,
The product is inspected 3, then opened by an opening machine 4,
Thereafter, it is transferred to a predetermined container 5 and, if stored, stored in a raw material warehouse 6. Therefore, unlike the conventional example, there is no need for complicated unloading, and since the items are stored in a unified container, they can be organized in an orderly manner.

In other words, in conventional sorting, the bags are lowered from the truck to the ground, weighed one by one, moved to the next location, part of the package is torn open, the inside inspected, the damaged part is repaired, and the bag is stored in the raw material warehouse. At the time of sorting, the desired amount is removed from the warehouse. However, this method requires inputting or lifting and lowering the cargo using a forklift for each task, which is extremely complicated.Furthermore, the packaging is not uniform, such as jute bags, wooden boxes, and bamboo baskets. It was also difficult to keep them neatly stored in raw material warehouses. In this regard, in the present invention, for example, after unloading from a truck, crude drugs are successively weighed, inspected, and unsealed, and then transferred to a container of a certain shape, which reduces the complexity and unorganized unloading process. These can be completely rationalized. Note that items determined to be defective through inspection are removed from the regular line and sent to the defective item storage area 8a. In addition, the bag containing pests is either opened or sent to the smoking room 8b to kill the insects without opening the bag. In addition, bag opening machine 4
As mentioned above, since there are various packaging shapes, it is desirable to provide a plurality of opening lines depending on the packaging shape.

Next, the crude drug is taken out from the raw material warehouse 6, and contaminants are mechanically removed depending on the properties of the crude drug and the contaminants. For this mechanical removal, at least two or more types of sorting lines 7 are provided as removal equipment, and a sorting line that is suitable for the properties of the crude drug and the impurities is selected to remove the impurities.

For example, as mentioned above, there are a wide variety of types of crude drugs, and the presence of contaminants is also diverse, so mechanical sorting cannot be fully effective unless an optimal sorting method is used. For example, in the case of ``Irei'', contaminants such as stones and mud are caught in the herbal medicine during the growth process of sclerotia that parasitize the roots of plants. As the objective means 7, as shown in FIG. 2, using a sorting line consisting of a combination of a rotating sieve 7a and a vibrating sieve 7b, crude drugs are mechanically dropped in the rotating sieve 7a to give an impact, and then passed through the vibrating sieve. It is effective to separate stones and mud with 7b, and then remove human hair, etc. with a suction sorter 7c. (Note that 7h is a filter.) In the case of herbal medicines, such as ``hosara'', which have a lot of soil and sand attached to their rhizomes and have stones wrapped around their fine roots, they are cut into lengths of several centimeters. After that, it is preferable that the material is fed from the hopper 7d to a windscreen 7e, where it is subjected to mechanical impact to remove stones and mud, and then passed through the windscreen 7f. or,
In the case of herbal medicines containing stones or shells of the same size and color, such as small bulbs such as "Hanka," first remove dirt and fine particles using a mawashi sieve 7e. It is preferable to remove human hair and the like using a power suction sorter 7c, and further remove stones and the like through a specific gravity sorter 7g.

Note that the sorting line shown in FIG. 2 is an example of mechanical removal of crude drugs, and although it is preferable to combine the optimal sorting lines for individual crude drugs, it is usually possible to combine the mechanical equipment 7a to 7g described above. , mechanical sorting suitable for the crude drugs handled can be carried out.

Next, after the impurities have been mechanically removed in this manner, the herbal medicines are placed in predetermined containers and temporarily stored in an intermediate warehouse without visually or manually sorting them. Regarding certain herbal medicines, even according to conventional examples,
For example, mechanical sorting is performed using a wind sorter or the like, but even in this case, the materials are still visually and manually sorted, and then shipped, packed, and stored in a warehouse. In this case, since manual sorting and mechanical sorting are carried out in a continuous combination, the speed of each sorting process varies depending on the type of herbal medicine being processed.
There is a significant difference between the two. Therefore, in order to perform continuous flow operations, it is necessary to reduce the mechanical sorting capacity, increase or decrease the number of manual sorters depending on the type of herbal medicine, or always prepare more than necessary. A large amount of waste arises due to the process of sorting and sorting.
In this regard, according to the method of the present invention, manual sorting is performed by separating
We operate the optimal sorting line and sorting speed for each type of herbal medicine to achieve the most effective mechanical sorting. Mechanical sorting refers not only to the case where everything is done mechanically, but also to the extent that the advantages of mechanical sorting are not lost or to compensate for the disadvantages of mechanical sorting, and manual sorting can also be used as desired. It is also shown if it is included.

In addition, when storing semi-finished products in the intermediate warehouse 8, it is preferable to configure the product as a low-temperature, dehumidifying room to prevent mold from forming.

Next, the crude drugs stored as semi-finished products in the intermediate warehouse 8 are taken out in accordance with shipping, and those with mold etc. are passed through a mold remover 9, and those that need to be sorted by color etc. Foreign matter remaining in the herbal medicine is identified and separated through a color sorter 10 or the like, and finally, a final check is performed by manual sorting 11 such as visual inspection.

That is, if the impurities are screened in advance using the above-mentioned mechanical means to the maximum extent possible, impurities can be removed from most of the herbal medicines, and furthermore, if color screening is performed afterwards, they can be completely removed by visual inspection alone. In other words, one of the features of the present invention is that foreign substances can be effectively removed from most crude drugs by performing the mechanical removal and color sorting as described above. In addition to color sorting, sorting by shape etc. will further enhance the effect.

For example, even though the bulbs of Hanka and Enkocho have almost the same shape, and cannot be distinguished by shape, they can be easily distinguished by color, as the former is white and the latter is maroon. In addition, boar, huangren, and chili exhibit different colors, and although it may not be possible to distinguish them from adhering earth and sand by color, they can be distinguished between herbal medicines and from adhering earth and sand based on their shape.

Although the above explanation focused on the example of removing impurities from Chinese herbal medicines, the method of the present invention can also be applied to cases where impurities are removed from spice raw materials and other wild plant species. can.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow sheet of a process according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flow sheet of an example of the mechanical sorting line. Code 1... Truck, 2... Weighing, 3... Inspection, 4... Opening machine, 6... Raw material warehouse, 7... Mechanical sorting line, 8a... Defective product storage, 8b... Fumigation room, 8 ...Intermediate warehouse, 9...Mold removal machine, 10
...color sorting machine, 11...hand sorting.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. While the packaged Chinese herbal medicines are continuously transported, they are sequentially inspected and unsealed, stored in a certain container and temporarily stored, and then transferred to at least two types of contaminant screening lines. After mechanically removing impurities from inside through at least one sorting line compatible with Chinese herbal medicines, storing them as semi-finished products, and then identifying and removing foreign substances from the semi-finished products by at least color as required for shipping. , a method for removing impurities from Chinese herbal medicines, which is characterized by manual sorting.