JPH0627073B2 - Chinese medicine manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to a method for producing a Chinese herb medicine to obtain Chinese herbal extract powder.

[Conventional technology]

An ordinary method for producing a herbal medicine is an extraction step of brewing a crude drug as a raw material with hot water to obtain an extract, and a solid-liquid separation step of solid-liquid separating the extract with a solid-liquid separator to remove solid residues,
A concentration step of concentrating the liquid components separated by solid-liquid separation with a concentrator,
The main process is a drying process in which the concentrated liquid is dried by a drier and powdered.

The extraction step was performed in a batch system, and the extract extracted for each batch was sequentially sent to a solid-liquid separation step, a concentration step, and a drying step to obtain an extract powder.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

In the conventional Chinese medicine manufacturing method, it is necessary to clean each device and piping every time an item is changed. In this case, the washing was carried out all at once from the extraction tank to the dryer through the washing liquid after the completion of all steps.

Therefore, every time the item changed, the entire process had to be stopped for cleaning, which deteriorated the production efficiency. In addition, a large number of personnel are required for cleaning all the steps.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a herbal medicine that can produce a plurality of items in parallel, can reduce the number of personnel required for cleaning work, and can save labor.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The method for producing a herbal medicine of the present invention comprises connecting an extraction tank, a solid-liquid separator, a concentrator, and a dryer in this order with pipes, and providing a four-way valve in each pipe so that the front and rear devices are connected to each other with the four-way valve open. In the closed state, the front and rear devices are shut off and connected to the cleaning liquid pipe and the cleaning waste liquid pipe respectively, and the four-way valve before and after each process is sequentially switched from the open state to the closed state at the end of each process. The cleaning liquid is injected and cleaned.

[Action]

According to the present invention, in one process, after the processing of one item is completed and the contents are fed to the next process by piping,
The four-way valve is switched to the closed state to shut off the process before and after, and the inside of the process is cleaned. Therefore, while the post-processing for the item is performed in the post-process, the cleaning is performed to process the next item in the previous process, so that the multiple items can be sequentially flown to the production line, and the production can be performed. Increases efficiency.

Also, since each process is sequentially cleaned according to the process flow, the number of workers required for cleaning is small compared to the case where all the processes for one item are collectively cleaned as in the conventional case. Well, labor can be saved.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a process explanatory view of an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, in this method of manufacturing a herbal medicine, a first extraction tank 1 and a second extraction tank 2 which are connected in parallel with each other
A solid-liquid separation device 3 (centrifuge or the like) for solid-liquid separating the extracts obtained in these extraction tanks 1, 2, a storage tank 4 for storing the liquid components separated by the solid-liquid separation, and the liquid components A concentrator 5 for concentrating the concentrated liquid, a storage tank 6 for storing the concentrated liquid, and a dryer 7 for drying the concentrated liquid and converting the powder into powder are arranged, and a pipe 13 is connected between each step. .

A four-way valve 8 is attached to the pipe 13 between each process. This four-way valve has a cleaning liquid pipe 9 and a cleaning waste liquid pipe 1.
0 is connected respectively. Further, the extraction tanks 1 and 2, the solid-liquid separation device 3, the storage tank 4, the concentrator 5, the storage tank 6 and the dryer 7 are also provided with a cleaning liquid pipe 9 and a cleaning waste liquid pipe 10, respectively.

The cleaning liquid is sent from the cleaning liquid tank 11, while the cleaning waste liquid is sent to the recovery liquid tank 12.

The four-way valve 8 is in the open state shown in FIG.
The front and rear devices are communicated with each other, and the processing liquid is allowed to be sent to the subsequent process through the pipe 13. At this time, the cleaning liquid pipe 9 and the cleaning waste liquid pipe 10 also communicate with each other, but the on-off valve 14 provided in the cleaning liquid pipe 9 prevents the cleaning liquid from flowing in and out. On the other hand, in the closed state shown in FIG. 2 (B),
The pipe 13 is cut off, the upstream pipe 13 communicates with the cleaning waste liquid pipe 10, and the downstream pipe 13 to the next step communicates with the cleaning liquid pipe 9.

FIG. 3 shows a time chart of the operation of the Chinese medicine manufacturing apparatus. This time chart shows the sequence of all processes from item 1 to item 3. That is, first, the first extraction tank 1 is washed and then the item 1 is extracted. In parallel with the start of the extraction, the cleaning of the second extraction tank 2 is started, and after the cleaning, the extraction of the item 1 is started. Further, the solid-liquid separation device 3 is washed in parallel with the start of the extraction in the second extraction tank 2. After washing the solid-liquid separation device 3, the extract extracted in the first extraction tank 1 is fed into the solid-liquid separation device 3 to perform solid-liquid separation equipment. It is fed to the solid-liquid separation device 3 to perform solid-liquid separation.

On the other hand, immediately after the washing of the solid-liquid separation device, the next storage tank 4 is washed to store the liquid components that have been solid-liquid separated. Thereafter, the concentrator 5, the storage tank 6 and the dryer 7 are sequentially washed in the same manner, and the respective treatments are performed by the respective devices after the cleaning so as to follow them.

On the other hand, when the extraction of the item 1 in the first extraction tank 1 is completed, the cleaning of the dryer 7 is completed at about the same time, so the first extraction tank 1 is cleaned again. , The extraction of item 2 is started. At this time, the item 1 is processed between the storage tank 4 and the dryer 7. Thereafter, the item 2 is switched to the item 3 in the same manner.

Switching of these treatments and cleanings is performed by each pipe 1.
The control is performed by controlling the four-way valve 8 and the opening / closing valve 14 of the cleaning liquid pipe provided in FIG.

With such a configuration, when attention is paid to a certain process in FIG. 2, the waiting time for cleaning is significantly shortened every time the item is changed, and the production efficiency is improved. Further, focusing on the flow of one item, the cleaning operation required in each process is sequentially performed prior to the processing, so that the labor can be saved as compared with the case where the cleaning is performed for all the processes at once.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, according to the flow of steps, for each step,
Since sequential cleaning is performed, a plurality of items can be sequentially flowed to the process, which improves production efficiency.

Further, the number of personnel required for cleaning is smaller than that in the case of cleaning all the processes for one item all at once, and labor can be saved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a process explanatory view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the operation of a four-way valve, and FIG. 3 is a time chart in the operating state of this embodiment. 1 ... First extraction tank, 2 ... Second extraction tank, 3 ... Solid-liquid separator, 5 ... Concentrator, 7 ... Dryer, 8 ... Four-way valve, 9 ... Washing liquid piping, 10 ... Washing waste liquid piping, 13 ...
…Piping

Front page continued (72) Inventor Nobuyuki Hitomi 4-3-5 Hoshida Yamate, Katano-shi, Osaka Prefecture

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An extraction step of extracting an extract from a crude drug in an extraction tank, a solid-liquid separation step of solid-liquid separating the extract with a solid-liquid separator, and a concentration of concentrating the liquid components separated by the solid-liquid with a concentrator. In the method for producing a herbal medicine, which comprises a step and a drying step in which the concentrated liquid is dried in a drier to be powdered, the extraction tank, the solid-liquid separator, the concentrator and the drier are connected in the order of pipes, and each pipe Is equipped with a four-way valve, the front and rear devices are communicated with each other when the four-way valve is open, and the front and rear devices are shut off with the four-way valve closed and communicated with the cleaning liquid pipe and the cleaning waste liquid pipe, respectively. A method for producing a herbal medicine, characterized in that the four-way valve before and after each step is sequentially switched from an open state to a closed state, and a cleaning liquid is injected and washed.