Application of x-ray phase contrast imaging to microscopic identification of Chinese medicines

In the last decade, x-ray phase contrast imaging (XPCI) has received considerable attention as a novel imaging technique, which has proved to be suitable for weakly absorbing materials such as biomedical samples and polymers. In this paper, the microstructures of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), which are used as judging criteria in the identification of TCMs, were investigated by XPCI based on a nano-focus x-ray tube. The results demonstrated that XPCI is a promising new method for the identification of TCMs, with advantages such as nondestructivity, no special sample preparation and suitability for thick samples.