services - Industrial Technology Institute

services1

Pharmacognostic Identification

Natural drugs are commonly reported for adulteration with low grade materials or foreign substances and targeted therapeutic effect cannot be expected from these medicines. Therefore, pharmacognostic identification plays an important role in terms of quality control (identity, purity and consistency), efficacy and safety in herbal drug industry. To support the manufacturers and marketers to be confident on the quality of herbal raw materials and products, ITI provides pharmacognostic analysis services via different standardization parameters; organoleptic characters, microscopic study, powder study, physico-chemical analysis and phytochemical analysis to authenticate the plant material and identify the presence of adulterations. Microscopic detection is performed according to WHO guidelines on quality control and standardization of medicinal plant materials while morphology is studied according to standard pharmacognostic parameters. Facilities are available for detection of adulteration of bees honey by microscopic analysis and furfural test.

MSDS - Material Safety Data Sheets

We provide comprehensive MSDS as per customer request for the safe transport of herbal based products, raw materials and essential oils on regulatory and safety data. This may include, identification of the substance or mixture, composition/information on ingredients, physical and chemical parameters, fire explosion and reactivity data, conditions and materials to avoid, occupational exposure limits, personal protection, health hazard determination, toxicological information, ecological information, emergency and first aid procedures, spills, leak and disposal procedure, transport information, waste disposal method, handling and shipping procedures.

msds

Aflatoxins

The mycotoxin produced by Aspergillus flavus named as Aflatoxins, known to cause both acute and chronic toxicity in humans and many animals. Hence, this brings the importance of testing for the presence of aflatoxins in raw materials before manufacturing the product, food items and animal feed to avoid the health hazard of human and animals, to prevent the contamination during transport and to have a good market value for quality product. The food, commonly known to be contaminated with aflatoxins, are cereals (eg: wheat, rice, corn), spices (eg: chilli and chilli-based products, black pepper, nutmeg), peanut, dried fruits, desiccated coconut, coconut oil, and prawns. We offer the facility for detection of four main aflatoxins found in food; aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2 by UHPLC method.

Consultancy

Alcohol-based Manufacturing Processes

We are providing services to alcohol-based industries by issuing audit reports which are needed to obtain new licence or continue the previous licence.

Checklist for alcohol based product inspections:

Customer request letter
Brief description of the company including alcohol based products
Copy of the alcohol permit
Product outline, total quantity produced for each products for given period
Individual product flow charts
Copies of recent alcohol purchased receipts
Evidence for sale/delivery of finished products

Essential Oil Industry

Essential Oil industry is one of the potential fields in Sri Lanka using locally available natural plant materials which has been received a significant attention in the international market. Therefore, we firmly believe that the technical and chemical knowledge available with us support the starters of the industry as well as the current customers to fulfil their targets to maximize consumer satisfaction with quality products comply with required regulatory standards. For the consultancy in manufacturing process and chemical analysis, you may contact Herbal Technology Division.

Herbal Products - Quality Control

Herbal technology section of ITI offers a range of services to maintain quality control system of the herbal based cosmetics and drugs. The advanced chromatographic techniques, HPLC, GC, GC-MS are used for the identification and quantification of active ingredients according to international standards. Further, manufacturers and marketers can meet our professionals for the solutions regarding the issues in manufacturing, trouble shooting, GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices), and product registration of their consumer products.

Analysis of herbal drugs and cosmetics

According to local and international standards is a readily available service at ITI. Identification by TLC, quantification by GC, pH, moisture, relative density, colouring matter, refractive index, saponification value, unsaponification value, acid value, peroxide value, thermal stability, non-volatile matter, total ash, water-soluble ash, acid-insoluble ash, are some of the parameters tested under the above category and you may contact Herbal Technology Section at ITI for the further information.

In addition, Phyto-chemical analysis of medicinal plants and herbal-based products are available with advanced instrumentation techniques to fulfill the customer requirements.

Analysis of coumarin - Analysis of coumarin is carried out mainly for Ceylon cinnamon and the cinnamon from other countries as ground cinnamon quills, featherings, and cinnamon based commodities, such as tea, confectionary and ayurvedic products.
Analysis of catechin - Analysis of black tea and green tea is performed by HPLC for total catechins as well as individual catechins including catechin, epicatechin, epigallocatechin, epigallocatechin gallate and epicatechin gallate
Analysis of vanillin - Analysis of vanillin is employed for synthetic and natural vanilla flavour, vanilla pods, vanilla powder and vanilla essense.
Asiaticoside from Gotukola (Centella asiatica) & azadirachtin from Neem (Azadirachta indica) – by HPLC techniques

The services for active ingredients testing in herbal products (eg: mouth wash, balm, mosquito repellent made out of essential oils) by Gas Chromatography can also be obtained in our premises.

Essential Oils

Analysis of essential oils (eg: Cinnamon leaf oil and bark oil, Sandalwood oil, pepper oil, cardamom oil, nutmeg oil, clove oil, vetiver oil, citronella oil and other essential oils on request) in plant materials for detection and quantification of their active ingredients, are carried out at HTS according to international standards using Gas chromatographic techniques (GC/GC-MS).

Apart from the regular standardized services, those testing facilities are available in the form of customized testing services.

Bio-assays

Series of bio assays are facilitated to carry out under our Bio-activity laboratory at Herbal Technology Section to fulfill the ever increasing demand of the industries related to life sciences, especially in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. You can find the available facilities below and contact our scientists for further information.