Abstract
'Hwan So Dan(還少丹)' is Chinese patent medicine which has been used for shortage of vitality and asthenia in Korea. It consists of 14 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. For the identification of individual crude drugs in such powdery mixtures, microscopic method may advantageously be used as it requires only a small amount specimens. In this study, it is demonstrated that the microscopic method is very effective for the identification of 14 crude drug ingredients in Hwan So Dan.
