Abstract
Objectives : Since single extract powders was released at 1987, the insurance fee has not been changed, but the price of raw material has been increasing. According to this, Pharmaceutical company couldn't invest on quality of the product, so, the quality of single extracts went down and lost the consumer's trust. We checked the contents of marker ingredients in single extract thereby to recover the reliability of insurance-covered herbal preparations. Methods : we bought total twelve products of eight different single extracts of two main pharmaceutical companies among total 65 kinds of single extract powder stipulated in KHP (The Korean Herbal Pharmacopoeia) monograph III at Jan. 2013. Assays of selected single extract powders are performed by KHP regulation. And we surveyed price fluctuation of relevant herb raw materials from 2005 to 2012. Results : Among twelve products, eight single extract powders were suitable by the KHP regulation. But four products didn't reach the content amount of KHP. Marker contents in the single extracts product of Pueraria Root, Licorice, Peony root and Scutellaria Root of A company were 70%, 1%, 23.7% and 75.1%, respectively. Conclusions : We can acertain whether there's a quality problem in the insurance-covered single extract powders. But, A company is no longer producing these improper single extract powders. As a medicine, single extract powders needs to be strictly quality controlled by the company, and regularly monitored by the KFDA.