Induction and analysis for NIR features of frequently-used mineral traditional Chinese medicines

Abstract

In order to provide theoretical basis for the rapid identification of mineral traditional Chinese medicines(TCM) with near infrared (NIR)diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Characteristic NIR spectra of 51 kinds of mineral TCMs were generalized and compared on the basis of the previous research, and the characteristic spectral bands were determined and analyzed by referring to mineralogical and geological literatures. It turned out that the NIR features of mineral TCMs were mainly at 8 000-4 000 cm ⁻¹ wavebands, which can be assigned as the absorption of water, -OH and[CO3 ²⁻] and so on. Absorption peaks of water has regularity as follows, the structure water and -OH had a combined peak which was strong and keen-edged around 7 000 cm ⁻¹, the crystal water had two strong peak around 7 000 cm ⁻¹ and 5 100 cm ⁻¹, and water only has a broad peak around 5 100 cm ⁻¹. Due to the differences in the crystal form and the contents of water in mineral TCMs, NIR features of water in mineral TCMs which could be used for identification were different. Mineral TCMs containing sulfate are rich in crystal water, mineral TCMs containing silicate generally had structure water, and mineral TCMs containing carbonate merely had a little of water, so it was reasonable for the use of NIR spectroscopy to classify mineral TCMs with anionic type. In addition, because of the differences in cationic type, impurities, crystal form and crystallinity, mineral TCMs have exclusive NIR features at 4 600-4 000 cm ⁻¹, which can be assigned as Al-OH, Mg-OH, Fe-OH, Si-OH,[CO3 ²⁻] and so on. Calcined mineral TCMs are often associated with water and main composition changes, also changes of the NIR features, which could be used for the monitoring of the processing, and to provide references for the quality control of mineral TCMs. The adaptability and limitation of NIR analysis for mineral TCMs were also discussed:the majority of mineral TCMs had noteworthy NIR features which could be used for the NIR analysis. And the NIR features of a few mineral TCMs were inapparent, such as Fluoritum, Realgar and Cinnabar, for which the Raman spectroscopy can be adopted alternatively.