Fluorescence Coupled with Macro and Microscopic Examinations of Morphological Phenotype Give Key Characteristics for Identification of Crude Drugs Derived from Scorpions

Microscopic examination of crude drug components has been the traditional method to identify the origin of biological materials. For the identification of components in a given mixture via microscopy, standard reference photographs of fragments derived from different organs and tissues of individual species are required. In addition to these reference photographs, a highly observant eye is needed to compare the morphological characteristics observed under the microscope with those of the references and to then identify the origin of the materials. Therefore, if other indexes are available to be coupled with microscope examination, the accuracy of identification would be significantly improved. Here, we prepared standard reference photographs for microscopic examination to identify powdered and fragmented materials in the crude drug “Quanxie” derived from individual organs of dried scorpion (Buthus martensii KARSCH). Since a remarkable characteristic of scorpion bodies is that they fluoresce under UV light, two methods to identify “Quanxie” were established, including fluorescence fingerprint analysis and microscopic fluorescent luminance imaging analysis. In the former, at least 0.1 g of powered materials was used, which could be recovered after the measurement, and in the latter, only small amounts of powders were used for microscopic examinations. Both methods could distinguish powders of “Quanxie” from those of other micro-morphologically similar crude drugs, namely, “Chantui,” “Sangpiaoxiao,” and “Jiangcan.” The combination of these methods should improve the swiftness and accuracy of “Quanxie” identification.