Brief Analysis of Chinese Medicine Extract Drying Technology

Drying refers to the operation of using heat to vaporize the liquid in the wet material, being carried away by the drying medium, and allowing the wet material to be dried. There are usually two methods of drying, one is natural drying, and the other is artificial drying. Among them, natural drying is to place the wet material pile on the open air or indoor site, and the material is dehydrated and dried by the natural conditions of wind blowing and sun drying; the artificial drying is to put the wet material in a special (dryer) for heating, so that the material is heated. dry.

Drying is an important part in the production of traditional Chinese medicine. It is widely used in the production of pharmaceutical excipients, APIs, intermediates and finished products, especially the drying of traditional Chinese medicine extracts. Its operation directly affects the performance, quality, appearance and cost of the products.

1 Introduction of the problem At present, the drying of the extract mainly relies on traditional drying equipment such as hot air circulation type oven and vacuum drying box. In recent years, new drying techniques such as spray drying, vacuum freeze drying and microwave vacuum drying have been used in the drying process of traditional Chinese medicine extracts. Certain promotion applications.

Due to the high viscosity and poor gas permeability of traditional Chinese medicine extracts, the drying process of traditional Chinese medicine extract drying technology has the disadvantages of long drying time, low yield, high energy consumption, low production efficiency and low product quality, which is far from satisfying the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine. Requirements for high efficiency, energy saving, environmental protection and advanced Chinese medicine extract drying process. The use of high-tech to transform the traditional manufacturing methods of traditional Chinese medicine products has become the key issue for the Chinese medicine industry to move toward high-tech industrialization. Among them, the vacuum low-temperature continuous belt dryer can effectively solve the problem of drying the traditional Chinese medicine extract, but because this technology started late in China, especially in the Chinese medicine industry, the technology is insufficiently understood, which limits its promotion and application. Therefore, it is of great significance to accelerate the promotion and application of this high-efficiency, energy-saving and environmentally-friendly vacuum low-temperature continuous belt dryer in the industry.

2 Common techniques for drying Chinese herbal extracts 2.1 Vacuum drying oven Vacuum drying oven is an early and simple drying method, which is still widely used in the drying of traditional Chinese medicine extracts. The vacuum drying box is composed of a multi-layer heating plate or a steam heating tube. The heating plate or the heating pipe frame is filled with hot water or low-pressure steam as a heating medium, and the tray on which the medicine to be dried is placed is placed on the heating plate. Or on the pipe rack, the vacuum pump is vacuumed in the tank. The heating plate or the heating pipe rack heats the medicine to a specified temperature in the circulating flow of the heating medium, and uses a vacuum pump to perform the pumping and dehumidifying to evaporate the water in the material, and evacuates with the vacuum to make the working chamber in a vacuum state, the material is The drying speed is greatly accelerated, and energy is also saved.

The vacuum drying oven is characterized by simple and easy operation, low investment, strong applicability, and is generally applicable to flammable, viscous, thixotropic or paste materials. The drug is not easily contaminated during the drying process and can be used for drying and heat treatment of the drug. However, there are also many defects, such as high labor intensity, high calorie consumption, low thermal efficiency (thermal energy utilization is less than 40%), and long drying time, which may cause some heat-sensitive components to decompose, the color is ugly, the quality of the medicine is lowered, and the drying is dry. In the process, the material is easy to form into a hard block, which is difficult to smash and has poor mouthfeel.

The vacuum drying oven is suitable for the drying of small batches and multi-variety materials. Therefore, the drying equipment of different sizes is installed in the laboratory, the intermediate testing plant and the factory. With the development of new technologies, vacuum drying ovens have gradually been replaced by other drying technologies. Most of the vacuum drying boxes reserved by Chinese medicine companies are some improved equipments, which have higher heat transfer coefficient, better heat utilization rate and shorter material drying time.

2.2 Spray dryer The current application of spray drying technology in the Chinese medicine pharmaceutical industry has been relatively extensive. In recent years, spray technology has been combined with a variety of technologies such as fluidization, micro-encapsulation and coating, and its application in the field of traditional Chinese medicine has been expanding and playing an increasingly important role.

During the spray drying process of traditional Chinese medicine extract, the clean air with a grade of 100,000 grades is filtered by primary and intermediate filtration, heated to the corresponding required temperature by steam heat exchange and electric heating, and is led to the hot air distributor evenly distributed. When entering the tower, the material is supplied from the material pump to the centrifugal atomizer located at the top of the drying tower, atomized into the corresponding required droplets, uniformly sprayed into the drying tower, and is in contact with the distributed hot air, large-area convection, and instantaneous drying is completed. Molding to obtain a powdery or granulated product.

Spray drying has the characteristics of fast drying speed, stable product quality and high production efficiency. At the same time, it can save the process of concentration, filtration and pulverization, and the product has relatively good fluidity and fast solubility. In the traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceutical industry, the use of spray drying technology greatly simplifies the process of extracting Chinese medicines into semi-finished or finished products, thereby shortening the production cycle and improving production efficiency and product quality.

For traditional Chinese medicine extracts, the problem of spray-dried Zui is that the sticky wall and dry products are easy to absorb moisture during the drying process, and it is difficult to treat high-concentration and high-viscosity Chinese medicine extracts. Studies have shown that the softening point of traditional Chinese medicine extract is lower than the air temperature of spray drying is the main cause of sticking wall. By adding excipients to improve the softening point of the extract, the sticking phenomenon can be eliminated, but the addition of excipients may affect the purity of the product. . Another drawback of spray drying is that the product recovery rate is lower than that of the drying technology and needs to be taken seriously.

2.3 Freeze dryer Freeze drying is based on the heat and mass transfer mechanism under low temperature and low pressure. The traditional Chinese medicine extract is frozen in a low temperature environment below the temperature of the eutectic point of the extract, and then placed in a high vacuum environment. The moisture in the material is directly sublimated into a gas in an ice crystal state, thereby removing moisture in the material. Freeze-drying is suitable for the drying of heat-sensitive or easily oxidizable drugs, and has a wide range of applications in the drying process of Chinese herbal medicines. Because of the low temperature operation, the freeze-drying process has a large advantage in maintaining the stability of the active ingredient of the extract.

The disadvantage of freeze-drying is that the equipment is complicated and the drying cost is high. Therefore, economy is the bottleneck problem of the application of the technology in the traditional Chinese medicine industry. How to improve the productivity of freeze-drying equipment and reduce energy consumption is the key to the research of freeze-drying technology.

2.4 Vacuum low temperature continuous belt dryer Vacuum low temperature continuous belt drying technology is a moderate drying method between freeze drying and spray drying in terms of drying temperature and efficiency. Although domestic development is not long, it is quite popular in the industry. People are highly concerned and get a high rating from users. The vacuum low-temperature continuous belt dryer is a continuous vacuum feeding device in the form of continuous feeding and continuous discharging. The traditional Chinese medicine extract is preheated to the set temperature by the feed pump according to the preset feeding. Rate feed, evenly spread on several drying belts in the dryer through the distributor, driven by a motor-driven special rubber roller to drive the drying belt to move in the direction of the dryer cylinder at a set speed, below each drying belt Each has a separate heating plate and a cooling plate. The drying belt is closely attached to the heating plate and the cooling plate to transfer the energy required for drying to the material in contact with heat transfer. When the drying belt moves from one end of the cylinder to the other end, the material has been dried and cooled, and when the drying belt is folded back, the dried cake is peeled off from the drying belt, and is broken down by a lifting device that moves up and down. In the device, the pulverized material is discharged through two air-glot type discharge hoppers. Since the material directly enters a high degree of vacuum, it is gradually dried over a period of time (usually 30 to 60 minutes), and the particles obtained after drying have micropores inside from the microstructure. After directly pulverizing to the required particle size, the flowability of the particles is very good, and it can be directly compressed or filled with capsules. At the same time, since the particles have a microscopic loose structure, the instant solubility is excellent, and the appearance of the particles is good, for instant dissolution (granules). Products can greatly improve the grade of the product. The belt vacuum dryer can be continuously placed in the two ends of the fuselage, continuous discharge, batching and discharging parts can be set in the clean room, the entire drying process is completely closed, not in contact with the external environment, in line with GMP.

Vacuum belt drying technology features: (1) low drying temperature, suitable for drying heat sensitive Chinese medicine extract; (2) suitable for drying and easy to oxidize traditional Chinese medicine extract; (3) suitable for drying high concentration, high viscosity Chinese medicine extract; (4) The product has good solubility. After drying, the material has micropores inside the microstructure. After directly pulverizing to the required particle size, the fluidity of the particles is very good. At the same time, the particles have a microscopic loose structure and dissolve quickly. (5) During the drying process of the product, the product is always under vacuum, and the material is cooled to make it close to room temperature, reducing oxidation of the product and making the material difficult to paste. Zui maintains its original color, aroma and taste to a high quality, and obtains high quality zui end products; (6) It can be continuously operated and is suitable for large-scale production.

Vacuum low temperature continuous belt dryer is a new concept of high efficiency, energy saving and environmentally friendly drying equipment. It has been successfully applied to the drying of Salvia miltiorrhiza extract, Sanqi extract, Angelica extract and food malt, coffee, milk powder, etc., and has achieved good results, especially for food, due to its short drying time, low temperature, vacuum The state has no oxidation and has the advantage of retaining the fragrance. This can also be applied in the pharmaceutical field. It has good retention activity and fragrance for some active substances, API, heat sensitive substances, vitamins and aromatic substances. .

2.5 Other drying methods In addition to the above-mentioned drying techniques commonly used in the Chinese medicine industry, there are many other drying equipments suitable for the drying of paste materials, such as microwave vacuum dryers, airflow dryers, fluidized dryers, and rotating Flash dryer, double cone rotary dryer, multi-function dryer, etc. However, these drying equipments are not specially used for the drying of traditional Chinese medicine extracts. Due to the high viscosity, high sugar content and poor gas permeability of traditional Chinese medicine extracts, it is necessary to make certain improvements to these drying equipments in order to be used in the Chinese medicine industry.

Although it is suitable for a wide variety of drying methods and equipments for traditional Chinese medicine extracts, the most advanced ones are spray drying, vacuum belt drying and freeze drying. These technologies have their own advantages and scope of application, and are reasonably selected according to the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicines. Appropriate drying methods are beneficial to improve the quality of traditional Chinese medicine extracts and reduce production costs.

3 Ways to improve drying efficiency In order to improve the quality of traditional Chinese medicine extract and reduce the loss of active ingredients of the extract, on the one hand, it is necessary to rationally select the drying process, on the other hand, it is necessary to continuously improve the drying equipment and improve the drying efficiency.

The following aspects need to be paid attention to: (1) improving and perfecting the drying process of existing equipment; (2) using new drying methods and joint drying methods to overcome the defects of single technology; (3) due to drying is the energy consumption in the production of traditional Chinese medicine Larger unit processes, therefore, should be designed and operated to consider how to save energy and meet environmental requirements.

4 Conclusion With the continuous development of science and technology, the drying equipment technology of the Chinese medicine industry is also constantly improving, and new drying technologies are emerging one after another, which will certainly accelerate the process of modernization of Chinese medicine in China.

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