Abstract
Objectives : Quality control for imported medicinal herbs is duty for regulation, however to the best of our knowledge there has been no report regarding quality control of imported ones. Therefore, this study investigated the data of imported ones for monitoring quality issue. Methods : These data are categorized according to item, the amount of import, country, inspection item, suitability, and incongruity reason based on the 248 results performed by KIOM. Results : China is the number one country for import with the value of 73%. Inspected medicinal herbs were 139 species, among them Poria is ranked as top for requested number and the amount of import. The amount of import is similar between high ranking 20 species and low ranking 119 ones, showing high ranking ones are major. The incongruity ratio was 7.7% from the total number of inspected items, the reason for incongruity was excess of tolerable amount of Cd residue. Conclusions : From the data, it is effective way to focus on high ranking herbs for evaluating imported herbs for quality control. The study of mechanism on Cd accumulation and its decrease is essential for environmental matter. And identification and storage for mixed used and easily decomposable herbs are remained for further study. Our study might be small step for showing guideline for proper quality control.