What is Chinese medicine processing?
The processing of traditional Chinese medicine is based on the different requirements of medical treatment, formula and preparation, combined with the characteristics of medicinal materials, in order to give full play to its curative effect or avoid and alleviate adverse reactions.
Repair system
Purification treatment-such as picking up branches and leaves from Albizia Albizia, brushing off the fluff on the back of loquat leaves and pyrrosia leaves, scraping off the rough skin of magnolia officinalis and cinnamon, etc.
Crushing treatment-such as oyster and keel mashed to facilitate boiling; Fritillaria cirrhosa powder is easy to swallow; Slice or file buffalo horn and antelope horn into powder.
Cutting treatment-such as gastrodia elata and betel nut should be sliced; Alisma orientalis and Atractylodes macrocephala should be cut into thick slices; Astragalus membranaceus and Spatholobus suberectus should be sliced obliquely; Mulberry bark and loquat leaves should be shredded; Imperata rhizome and ephedra should be cut into sections; Poria cocos and pueraria lobata should be cut into pieces.
river system
Wash-put the medicinal materials in clean water, wash them quickly, remove floating debris and sinking dirt, and take them out in time to dry for later use.
Spray medicinal materials that are not suitable for soaking with a small amount of water to make them clean and soften.
Soak-Soak hard medicinal materials in water for a period of time to soften them under the premise of ensuring the efficacy.
Moisturizing —— According to the soft and hard texture of medicinal materials, processing temperature and tools, various methods such as showering, washing, soaking, airing, soaking, covering, moistening and dew are adopted to make clear water or other liquid auxiliary materials slowly enter the human body, so as to soften the medicinal materials and facilitate the cutting of decoction pieces on the premise of no or little loss of efficacy.
Bleaching-a method of soaking drugs in wide water or long running water for a period of time and changing water repeatedly to remove fishy smell, salt and toxic components.
Water flying-is a method of separating extremely fine medicinal powder by using the sedimentation of medicinal materials in water. It is often used to crush minerals and shellfish. Such as flying cinnabar, flying calamine and flying realgar.
fire extinguisher system
Stir-fry-such as fried atractylodes, fried Fructus Aurantii with bran, fried Mylabris with rice, etc. It can reduce the irritation of drugs and enhance the curative effect; Sauté ed pangolin with sand, clam powder and donkey-hide gelatin. The medicine becomes brittle when heated evenly, and it is easy to fry out the effective components or take it conveniently.
Roast-such as honey-roasted astragalus and honey-roasted licorice. Sichuan lovage rhizome roasted with wine, Cyperus rotundus roasted with vinegar, Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. roasted with salt water, etc. It can change the properties of the drug, enhance the curative effect or reduce the side effects.
Calcination-such as calcining oysters, gypsum, etc. Make the medicinal materials crisp and easy to crush, and give full play to the curative effect.
Simmer-the method of wrapping medicinal materials with wet flour and paper, heating them with hot ash, or heating them with grass paper and decoction pieces separately is called simmering method.
Roasting-the method of heating and drying medicinal materials with small fire is called roasting.
Water-fire system
Decocting-the method of heating with water or liquid auxiliary materials and drugs.
Steam-a method of heating drugs with steam or water.
Dusting-the method of quickly scalding the medicine in boiling water and taking it out immediately. It is often used for peeling seed medicine and drying fleshy medicine.
Quenching-after the medicine is burnt red, it is quickly put into cold water or liquid auxiliary materials to make it brittle.
Other methods
Frosting-the product made by squeezing seed medicinal materials to remove oil or recrystallizing mineral medicinal materials is called frost. The corresponding treatment method is called frosting. The former is like croton cream, and the latter is like watermelon frost.
Fermentation-the method of mixing medicinal materials with auxiliary materials, placing them at a certain humidity and temperature, making them foam and moldy by mold, and changing the medicinal properties of the original drugs to produce new drugs is called fermentation. For example, Divine Comedy and Douchi.
Germination —— After soaking the seed medicinal materials with germination ability in water, they often germinate at a certain humidity and temperature, which is called germination. Such as rice sprouts, malt, soybean rolls, etc.