Under the Chinese Medicine Ordinance (Chapter 549 of the Laws of Hong Kong), testing for pesticide residues has been required for the registration of pCm since 2003 to ensure that they can meet the safety requirements. According to the Technical Guidelines for Registration of proprietary Chinese medicine, 9 organochlorine pesticide residues have to be tested.
Below table shows the maximum permitted levels of organochlorine pesticide residues:
Names of pesticides
Test Parameters
Maximum permitted level (mg/kg)
1
Aldrin and dieldrin
Sum of aldrin and dieldrin
0.05
2
Chlordane
Sum of cis-chlordane, 0.05 trans-chlordane and oxychlordane
0.05
3
DDT
Sum of p,p’-DDT, o,p-DDT, 1.0 p,p’-DDE and p,p’-TDE
1.0
4
Endrin
Endrin
0.05
5
Heptachlor
Sum of heptachlor and heptachlor epoxide
0.05
6
Hexachlorobenzene
Hexachlorobenzene
0.1
7
Hexachlorocyclohexane
Sum of α-, β-and δ-isomers
0.3
8
Lindane(γ-BHC)
Lindane(γ-BHC)
0.6
9
Quintozene
Sum of quintozene, pentachloroaniline and methyl pentachlorophenyl sulphide
1.0
Enviro labs Ltd. equipped with sophisticated instrument that could provide accurate analytical services to test for the above parameters in proprietary Chinese medicines.