Selection of Ultrafine Grinding Equipment for Traditional Chinese Medicine
Ultra-micro grinding generally refers to the process of pulverizing material particles above 3mm to below 10~25μm. After ultra-fine grinding, traditional Chinese medicine has the following advantages: improve the bioavailability of the medicine, improve the dissolution of the medicine, improve the performance of the medicine, reduce the dosage of the medicine, save resources, improve the preparation technology, not easy to produce pollution during processing, high grinding precision, powder Good body shape.
Classification of Chinese medicine
- Plant Chinese Medicine
Starch-based drugs, such as myrtle, mung bean, etc.; fibrous drugs, such as angelica, licorice, etc.; oleaginous volatile drugs, such as frankincense, schisandra, nootropics, etc.
- Animal Chinese Medicine
Such as shark cartilage, silkworm pupae, pearls, etc.;
- Mineral Chinese Medicine
Such as talc and so on.
Application of Chinese Medicine Ultrafine Grinding
Ultrafine grinding of traditional Chinese medicine is widely used, such as wolfberry, Shouwu, American ginseng, licorice, pollen, Ganoderma lucidum, hawthorn nucleus, animal bones, minerals and hundreds of traditional Chinese medicine products can be ultrafine grinding.
Principles of equipment selection
Ultra-fine grinding is not as fine as possible, but to control the powder according to customer or process requirements.
The selection of crushing equipment should be based on factors such as the characteristics of the material to be ground, the output of the material to be ground, the fineness requirements of the material to be ground, the value of the Chinese medicine product of the material to be ground, and the cost of grinding.
Chinese medicine ultrafine grinding equipment
- Mechanical impact mill
An impeller driven by a motor to rotate at a high speed is equipped with a movable blade (or hammer) to grind traditional Chinese medicine. It is suitable for grinding medium-soft and hard Chinese medicines, brittle Chinese medicines such as mineral medicines, and Chinese medicines with a lot of starch, such as rice and mung beans.
Mechanical impact grinding has high efficiency, large crushing ratio, simple structure and stable operation. However, the high-speed operation causes the temperature to rise, and the efficacy of the medicine may be lost, and the passage of the sticky wall may be blocked, and the resulting abrasion may cause the pollution of the medicine.
The high-pressure airflow is used to make the particles of the ground material violently collide, impact, and friction with each other, and the direct shearing effect of the airflow on the material is used to achieve the grinding effect. Chinese medicine suitable for grinding: brittle Chinese medicine, heat sensitive materials.
The products of the jet mill can be pulverized very fine (particle size up to 1-10μm), narrow particle size distribution range, easy to clean, and low temperature. However, this method is not applicable to medicinal materials containing volatile components, and a certain degree of fineness is required before the powder is ground.
Using the medium rotation and medium impact generated by the vibration, the material to be ground is impacted in a positive direction and at the same time subjected to tangential shear, thereby realizing high-energy, high-speed grinding.
The vibration mill has high grinding efficiency, low loss, strong adaptability to the processing object, fully enclosed operation, no dust pollution, and low grinding temperature. However, it is prone to sticking to the wall, and the water content of the material is relatively high.
- Cryogenic Grinder
It is suitable for crushing high value-added Chinese medicinal materials and foods that are difficult to grind at room temperature, easily deteriorated and decomposed by heat, as well as ultra-low melting point, super heat sensitive and super viscous materials (especially animal Chinese medicinal materials with high fat and high protein) )
The low-temperature grinder is non-polluting and has a wide range of applications. However, the crushing cost is very high and is rarely used.
- Knife Grinder
Chinese medicine suitable for grinding fibers.
The knife mill increases the shearing effect, and the grinding efficiency is higher.
- Grinding unit
It is suitable for grinding medicines containing more fiber, lignin, colloidal fat, resin, sugar and other ingredients.
The crushing unit has fine particle size and large output.
Among the above-mentioned various ultra-fine grinding equipments, jet mills and vibration mills are widely used. Among the jet mills, the fluidized bed type jet ultrafine pulverizer is the most widely used. Vibration mill is a kind of ultrafine grinding equipment for traditional Chinese medicine with the most research and application. Vibration mills are mostly used for ultra-fine grinding of animal and plant drugs in Germany and Japan.
Unsolved issues
Pharmaceutical production has its own strict quality inspection standards. General grinding equipment is not directly applicable to the production of medicines. At present, most of the equipment developed and produced is improved from mineral grinding equipment. As for how to prevent cross-contamination during the crushing process, how to achieve cleaning , Disinfection and automation control, etc., are all under study.
Since traditional Chinese medicine has certain medicinal properties and at the same time, it has certain toxicity. When the medicinal properties are fully displayed after ultra-fine grinding, further research is needed for its toxicity.