How to identify traditional Chinese medicine

Main methods of identification of traditional Chinese medicine

First, source identification

Second, character recognition.

Thirdly, microscopic identification.

Fourth, physical and chemical identification.

Character identification is to judge the authenticity of medicinal materials through comprehensive observation of their shape, size, surface, color, texture, section and smell.

Traditional experience identification mainly includes the following means:

1.

Seeing is a way to judge the authenticity of medicinal materials by looking at the shape, size, surface and color section of medicinal materials with the photoreceptor of human body-eyes.

Shape: The shape of each Chinese herbal medicine is generally fixed, such as cylindrical and spun silk. For example, Fritillaria cirrhosa is conical and Fritillaria cirrhosa is oblate; The true gastrodia elata is rectangular, and the false gastrodia elata is conical. The rhizome of Saposhnikovia divaricata is like "earthworm head", and the shape of hippocampus is "horsehead snake body". Attention should be paid to mastering features and recognizing shapes. The dried product can be soaked in water, so that it can be unfolded and observed to be flat.

Size: the size of Chinese herbal medicines, such as length, thickness, thickness, etc. , there are certain specifications. If it does not meet the specifications, it can be carefully identified; The measurement should be based on a large number of samples, such as Lycium barbarum, Codonopsis pilosula and uneven thickness.

Surface: The surface of Chinese herbal medicine has its own characteristics, mainly manifested in smoothness, root marks, lenticels, roughness, scales, hair and so on. Is one of the criteria for identifying the authenticity of Chinese herbal medicines. For example, there are many horizontal lines formed by the arrangement of latent buds on the surface of genuine gastrodia elata, while fake potatoes and mirabilis jalapa roots do not.

Color: the color of Chinese herbal medicines is usually fixed, and the color changes little. For example, safflower is red, indigo naturalis is dark blue, Arnebia euchroma is purple, coptis chinensis is yellow and so on. If the color changes, it may be fake and shoddy medicinal materials or medicinal materials with poor quality, so you can't choose them.

Cross section: when identifying bark, wood, vines, branches and roots, you can observe the cross section after breaking. Such as magnolia bark, cortex fraxini, agarwood, hematoxylin, etc. See if its cross section is powdery, how loud the sound is, and then distinguish its color, texture and fiber degree.

Cross-cutting the plane with a knife, you can see the ratio of wood core to bark wood, whether it is oily, etc. Such as yellow flowers, cross-section with chrysanthemum heart to prevent existing wheel lines and so on.

Touch it with your hand.

Touching by hand refers to feeling the texture characteristics of medicinal materials, such as hardness, toughness, looseness, viscosity or powder. Such as foam, powder, firewood, etc. For example, the pine foam of medulla tetrapanacis and the starch properties of yam should be recognized.

Smell your nose.

That is, smelling some medicinal materials with the nose has special aroma and smell, which is because the medicinal materials contain volatile substances. Some medicinal materials can be crushed and smelled again; Or burn it with boiling water before smelling it, and some need to ignite the aroma of smoke. The special smell of these medicinal materials often becomes one of the main basis for identification of medicinal materials. Such as agarwood, frankincense, camphor wood, yam, etc. It has a special aroma, but it is different, which can help identify it.

taste

Taste can identify the authenticity of medicinal materials from their taste. You can distinguish them by tasting sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty. Such as ebony, papaya and hawthorn, sour taste is better; Rhizoma Coptidis and Cortex Phellodendri are bitter, the better, while Radix Codonopsis, Radix Glycyrrhizae and Fructus Lycii are sweet.

Pay attention to the pungent and toxic medicinal materials when tasting, take some when tasting, spit out and gargle immediately after tasting, and chew some licorice to avoid poisoning.

5. Hydrostatic test

Water inspection is to use the various changes of some medicinal materials in water as the basis for identification to identify the authenticity of medicinal materials. For example, after the safflower is soaked in water, the water turns golden yellow and the flower does not fade; The hematoxylin turns red in hot water, which is caused by the chemical components contained in the medicinal materials.

6. Determination of ignition point

Some Chinese herbal medicines contain resin, which will produce special odor, color, smoke, noise and other phenomena after burning, so that we can identify the true and false.

For example, when musk is tested in fire, it will collapse and bubble; After burning, agarwood has a strong aroma because of oil bubbles, while counterfeit products have no such phenomenon.