What is Chinese medicine pharmacy for?

The processing methods of traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy have been gradually developed and enriched in the past dynasties. According to the records of predecessors and the actual processing experience in modern times, the processing methods can be roughly divided into five categories.

1. preparation:

(1) purification treatment: dust, impurities and non-medicinal parts are removed by picking, picking, winnowing, sieving, scraping and brushing, so that the medicine is clean and pure. Such as picking branches and leaves from Albizia Albizia flowers, brushing off the fluff on the back of loquat leaves and folium pyrrosiae, scraping off the rough skin of magnolia officinalis and meat, etc.

(2) Crushing treatment: the drugs are crushed by methods such as tamping, grinding, pounds and filing, so as to meet the requirements of preparations and other processing methods. For example, oysters and keel are mashed to facilitate decoction, and Fritillaria Fritillariae Cirrhosae is ground to facilitate swallowing; Rhinoceros horn and antelope horn are sliced or filed into powder, which is convenient for preparation and administration.

(3) Cutting treatment: the medicine is cut into certain specifications by cutting and chopping, so that the effective components of the medicine can be easily bathed out, and it is convenient for other processing, and it is also beneficial to weighing during drying, storage and blending. According to the nature of medicinal materials and medical needs, there are many specifications for slicing. For example, Gastrodia elata and Areca catechu should be sliced into thin slices, Alisma orientalis and Atractylodes macrocephala should be sliced into thick slices, Astragalus membranaceus and Spatholobus Spatholobus should be sliced into oblique slices, Paeonia lactiflora and Glycyrrhiza uralensis should be cut into circular slices, Cortex Cinnamomi and Cortex Magnolia Officinalis should be cut into disks, Cortex Mori and Folium Eriobotryae should be shredded, Rhizoma Imperatae and Herba Ephedrae should be cut into segments, and Poria and Radix Puerariae should be cut into pieces.

2. Water preparation:

The method of treating medicinal materials with water or other liquid auxiliary materials is called water preparation. The purpose of water preparation is mainly to clean drugs, soften drugs and adjust their properties. Commonly used are shower, washing, soaking, bleaching, soaking, moistening, water flying and so on. Here are three commonly used methods.

(1) Moisturizing: also known as stuffy or crouching. According to the soft and hard texture of medicinal materials, the temperature and tools during processing, various methods such as drenching, washing, soaking, soaking, airing, covering, moistening, dew moistening, bag moistening, re-moistening, double moistening, etc. are used to make clear water or other liquid auxiliary materials slowly enter, so as to soften the medicinal materials and facilitate the cutting of decoction pieces on the premise of no or little loss of efficacy. Such as drenching Schizonepeta tenuifolia, soaking betel nut, washing angelica with wine, soaking magnolia officinalis with ginger juice, moistening gastrodia elata, moistening rhubarb and so on.

(2) bleaching: the 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 is called bleaching. For example, kelp, seaweed and salt aconite are bleached to remove salt, and placenta hominis is bleached to remove fishy smell.

(3) water fly: it is a method to separate the extremely fine powder of medicinal materials by the sedimentation property of the medicine in water. Water-insoluble medicinal materials are crushed and then grinded in a mortar or grinding tank with water. For mass production, they are ground in a ball mill, and then a large amount of water is added and stirred, so that coarse powder particles sink, fine powder is suspended in water and poured out; Coarse particles fly again and grind again. After the decanted suspension is precipitated, it is separated out and dried into very fine powder. The powder made by this method is fine and reduces the flying loss of powder during grinding. It is often used for pulverizing minerals and shellfish. Such as flying cinnabar, flying calamine, flying realgar and so on.

3. fire:

(1) stir-frying: there are different methods of stir-frying, such as brown, coke and charcoal. Stir-frying and scorching make the medicine easy to be crushed and processed, and ease its properties; Seed drugs are easy to dissolve out when they are fried and decocted. Stir-frying charcoal can alleviate the strong and side effects of drugs, or enhance their astringent and hemostatic effects. There are also solid auxiliary materials such as soil, bran and rice fried, which can reduce the irritation of drugs and enhance the curative effect, such as soil fried atractylodes, bran fried Fructus Aurantii and rice fried Mylabris. The method of frying with sand, talc and clam powder is used to be called scalding. The medicine is evenly crispy when heated, and it is easy to fry effective components or convenient to take, such as fried pangolin with sand and fried donkey-hide gelatin with clam powder.

(2) stir-frying: stir-frying drugs with liquid auxiliary materials, so that the auxiliary materials can penetrate into the inside of the drug tissue, so as to change the drug properties, enhance the curative effect or reduce the side effects. Commonly used liquid adjuvants include honey, wine, vinegar, ginger juice, salt water, and children's excrement. For example, honey-made astragalus and licorice can enhance the effect of tonifying the middle energizer and benefiting qi; Stemona root and coltsfoot flower baked with honey can enhance the effect of moistening lung and relieving cough; Roasting Ligusticum chuanxiong with wine can enhance the function of promoting blood circulation; Roasting Rhizoma Cyperi with vinegar can enhance the effect of soothing liver and relieving pain; Salt-baked Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. can enhance kidney-tonifying function; Roasting Changshan with wine can reduce the emetic effect.

(3) Calcination: The medicine is directly or indirectly calcined with strong fire to make the texture crisp and easy to crush, and give full play to the curative effect. Hard mineral drugs or shellfish drugs are often directly calcined with fire, and the degree of calcination is red, such as Zi Shi Ying and concha meretricis seu cyclinae. Indirect calcination is to put the medicine in a fire-resistant container and calcine it until the bottom of the container is red and transparent, such as making carbonized blood and aged brown charcoal.

(4) stew: wrap the medicine with wet flour or wet paper, and heat it in hot ash until the flour or paper is black, which can reduce the strong and side effects of the medicine, such as simmering ginger, simmering sweet and simmering nutmeg.

4. Water-fire * * * preparation:

(1) Boiling: it is a method of heating with water or liquid auxiliary materials and drugs. For example, boiling Daphne genkwa with vinegar can reduce toxicity, and boiling Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi with wine can enhance the effect of clearing away lung heat.

(2) steaming: it is a method of heating drugs with steam or water. For example, steaming rhubarb with wine can alleviate the diarrhea effect. Some drugs can be steamed and dried repeatedly to get the effect suitable for medical needs. How to nourish liver and kidney and benefit essence and blood after repeated steaming and drying of Polygonum multiflorum Thunb.

(3) Quenching: It is a method that the medicine is burnt red and quickly put into cold water or liquid auxiliary materials to make it crisp. After quenching, it is not only easy to be crushed, but also the auxiliary materials are extremely absorbed, which can exert the expected curative effect. Such as vinegar quenching natural copper, turtle shell, coptis root boiling juice quenching calamine and so on.

(4) wok: it is a method of putting the medicine into boiling water for a short time and taking it out immediately. It is often used for peeling drugs and drying succulent drugs. Such as almond and peach kernel to peel; Humayuan and Asparagus are easy to dry and store.

5. other methods:

germination, fermentation, frosting and partial methods are commonly used. Its purpose is to change the original properties of drugs, increase new curative effects, reduce toxicity or side effects, or make drugs more effective, high quality and pure. Such as the germination of rice and wheat; Fermented Massa Medicata Fermentata and fermented soybean; De-oiling croton to remove frost, and processing watermelon to make frost; Pinellia ternata, etc.