Objective : Herb safety is one of the major topics in Japan, because several events affecting herb safety have occurred. Therefore, herb safety has become an important factor for government policy and hospital strategies. Hence we investigated the effect of decoction and processing to compare the contents of heavy metal before/after decoction and processing.

Method : The heavy metal contents before/after decoction and processing were measured by inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer(ICP-AES)

Results :

1. The content of Pb is a decrease of 33.5% before/after the decoction.

2. The content of Pb is a decrease of 22.7% before/after the processing.

3. The content of Cd and Pb in the residue is each 17% and 1.5% before/after the decoction.

Conclusion : These results will be used to establish a criterion for heavy metal.

KeyWords : Herbal medicine, Coptidis Rhizoma, heavy metal.