The control of heavy metals in agricultural residues from plant extracts is expected to enter a new stage

As the largest export type of Chinese herbal medicines, plant extracts have a certain impact on the export volume in recent years due to the problem of agricultural residues and heavy metals exceeding the standard According to the latest data of China Customs, the export volume of plant extracts in the first quarter of this year (2013) was 330 million US dollars, down from the same period last year One of the reasons is the serious problems of agricultural residues and heavy metals in China We learned from the "international competitiveness improvement Forum of Chinese plant extract industry" that at present, the market in the field of supplements in Europe and the United States has paid more and more attention to the organic certification of raw materials used, and the natural ingredients used by the first-class supplement manufacturers have been strictly organic certified However, the industry standards of plant extracts in China are not perfect, and the heavy metals and agricultural residues of the products exceed the standards, which directly lead to the difficulties of obtaining USP certification (including dietary supplement certification, dietary supplement component certification and drug component certification) and European Union cos certification (mainly for APIs) with high threshold for domestic plant extraction enterprises, which seriously affects the plant extraction of China to Japan and the United States Export development Because the heavy metals and high agricultural residues of plant extract products can be directly traced back to the factors such as planting soil of traditional Chinese medicine, pollution of water source and heavy metals added by bad traders in the process of acquisition Therefore, it is an effective way to control the source of plant planting to fundamentally solve the quality problem of extract products Shaanxi Province, as the largest province of research and production of plant extracts in China, has taken a new step in agricultural residues and heavy metal control With the development of plant extraction industry in Shaanxi Province for more than 20 years, the plant extraction enterprises in Shaanxi Province are the first to realize that if they want to control agricultural residual heavy metals, they must start from the source of plant planting The Qinling Mountains, known as the "North-South plant collection", is located at the junction of the south of Shaanxi Province and the north of Sichuan Province, with east-west trend The South River is not frozen, the soil is acid, and the vegetation is mainly evergreen broad-leaved forest In the north is the famous Loess Plateau, the soil is rich in calcium, the plants are mainly deciduous broad-leaved forest, and the natural resources are very rich At present, several Shaanxi plant extract enterprises have taken the lead in focusing on the national famous "natural medicine bank" Among them, Xi'an Yuansen biology has been investigating in Qinling since 2011 It is expected to establish its own plantation base in the next two years, and vigorously develop the batch planting of black fungus, white fresh skin, Atractylodes, Pulsatilla, red peony, isatis root, Scutellaria, Cimicifuga, liaowuwei and liquorice, so as to ensure to provide sufficient natural raw materials for its factory production We believe that after the continuous improvement of the product quality of the enterprise itself, the control of heavy metal agricultural residues is expected to enter a new stage, and the gradual establishment of the access mechanism of the domestic plant extraction industry, the export of plant extraction products in China will present a sustained and healthy development trend.