How to Produce and Purify Preparations from Medical Plants
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Preparation of Encapsulated Tinctures from Medical Plants


A big advantage of using Iontosorb E (prepared from macroporous bead cellulose) for encapsulation of medical plant tinctures, besides easy preparation of tablets/capsules, is:

  1. absence of unpleasant and too intensive tastes or odors coming from certain tinctures
  2. with regards to unpleasant taste absence no more condiments are needed
  3. tableting or capsule filling is very easy, because the dry product "flows" very smoothly due to its bead form
  4. Tinctures can be prepared not only from ethanole-water solution, but also from acetone-water solution, because a solvent is completely evaporated and only a dry extract from medical plant remains in Iontosorb E.

 

Basic Characteristics of Iontosorb E 

Parameter Value
 Particle size (a),            min. 98 % 30 - 500 microns
 Water leach pH ,   5 % suspenze 6,2 - 7,2
 Ash content max. 0,2 %
   

 

(a) on demand, extra paid, sorted particle size fractions 30-150 and 150-500 microns are available.

As it has already been said, macroporous bead cellulose is a pure cellulose, it is completely inert and unexceptionable for health.

 

A Survey of Iontosorb E Absorbability for Various Liquids Proper for Tincture Preparations

Liquid

Equlibrium Liquid Content in

Iontosorbu E, %

Absorbability of a liquid (b) 

[ ml in 1 gram ]

 Water  86.7 6.52
 Ethanole, min. 95 %  26.1 0.44
 Ethanole - water (1 : 1 v/v), about 51 % v/v, 43 % w/w  66.6 2.14
 Ethanol-water solution, 60 % v/v., 52 % w/w    
 Ethanol-water solution, 60 % w/w, 68 % v/v    
 Acetone, min. 99,8 %  18.1 0.28
 Acetone -water (1 : 1 v/v), 50 % v/v    

(b) liquid volume (ml) in 1 g of dry Iontosorb E

From above given it is obvious that the higher the water amount in a tincture, the higher its absorbability in Iontosorb E.



Preview: Absorbability of Certain Medical Plant Tinctures in Iontosorb E

Active species in tinctures 1 g of Iontosorb E after drying contained the following amount of original tincture
English name Latine name in grams in mililitres
 Oyster mushroom (1) Pleurotus ostreatus 2.55 2.67
 Pink Lapacho (2) Tabebuia impetiginosa 1.85 2.00
 Gotu Kola (Asiatic Pennywort) (3) Centella asiatica L. Urban 1.91  2.07
 Siberian Ginseng (4) Eleuterococcus senticosus    
 Mumio (5)   2.68 2.68

A Brief Description of Tincture Preparation:

  • (1) Fresh (not dried) oyster mushroom (1.5 kg) was dispersed in a kitchen food mixer with ethanol-water solution (3.4 L of ethanol + 5.4 L of distilled water). This slurry was let stand at room temperature for 30 days, from time to time it was shortly stirred. Then it was filtered through a paper filter. A portion of the filtrate was absorbed into Iontosorb E.

  • (2) 400 g of dried Pink Lapacho cortex were immersed in ethanol-water solution (4 L of ethanol + 4 L of distilled water = 1 : 1 v/v). This slurry was let stand at room temperature for 30 days, from time to time it was shortly stirred. Then it was filtered through a paper filter. A portion of the filtrate was absorbed into Iontosorb E.

  • (3) 50 g of dried Gotu Kola were immersed in ethanol-water solution (5 L of ethanol + 5 L of distilled water). This slurry was let stand at room temperature for 30 days, from time to time it was shortly stirred. Then it was filtered through a paper filter. A portion of the filtrate was absorbed into Iontosorb E.

  • (4) pp

  • (5)10 g of raw mumio were dissolved in 100 ml of distilled water. After removal of solid particles by filtration, a part of the filtrate was absorbed into Iontosorb E.

To prepare dry tinctures, not only ethanol is necessary, also acetone-water solution or other proper solvent can be used. During drying the solvent is evaporated from swollen Iontosorb E and only a dry extract from a medical plant remains encapsulated.

 

Absorption of a Tincture into Iontosorb E

Iontosorb E (for example 1000 g) is immersed in 5 time larger volume of a filtrate of a tincture (5000 ml). The slurry is stirred 24 hours at room temperature. During this time Iontosorb is swollen and the tincture absorbs in it. Then the residual free tincture is sucked off (for example on a glass frit S2 or Buchner funnel), Iontosorb E is dried at 50 °C till constant weight. The residual free tincture is then used for further production.

WARNING!!! A drier with air circulation is necessary, because the absorbed tincture is flammable.

 

Iontosorbu E - Pricelist

Particle size, mikrons   Price CZK / 1 kg
30 - 500 Basic, not sorted 2 950,-
30 - 150 sorted 3 220,-
150 - 500 sorted 3 220,-