Abstract
Ah Myeong Dan (兒明丹) is Chinese patent medicine which is used for congenital fever and congenital boils in Korea. It consists of 11 kinds of powdered crude drugs. In powdered crude drugs, it is hard to identify each component by chemical analysis or morphological examination. However, the method of identification of powdered crude drugs has not been clearly established. Therefore, it is of interest to establish the microscopic method for identification of powdered crude drugs of Chinese patent medicines. The effectiveness of microscopic method is exemplified by the identification of tissue and contents of crude drugs by comparison with standard drugs. In this study, it is demonstrated that the microscopic method is very effective for the identification of 11 crude drug ingredients in Ah Myeong Dan.