Necessity of quantitative experimental identification in controlling quality of traditional medicinal materials based on commercial specification status of Rhei Radix et Rhizoma.

Traditional Chinese medicinal materials(TCMM) have been well used in China with a long history as special commodities.However,the current commercial specifications were not uniform and normative for their diverse species and complex producing origins,also,the quality ranks had large disparity.Although the traditional experiential identification had played a very important role in quality control of TCMM,the assessing indexes of the method were mainly subjective,non-quantitative,and with bad accuracy.Thus the reproducibility of experiential identification did not usually meet the requirement and the method was difficult to be comprehended and inherited.In this paper,ideas to establish the quantitative experiential identification were put forward and discussed,referring the quantitative methods in food and wood,etc.,after surveyed the drug planters and sellers in main production area,the large markets for TCMM,the factories and institutes of Rhei Radix et Rhizoma.