? Chinese Medicine Concoction Process

Concocting methods are gradually developed and enriched over the generations, with reference to the records of previous generations, according to the actual experience of modern concoctions, concoctions can be roughly divided into five categories.

1. repair system:

(1) pure processing: picking, picking, bumps, sieve, scraping, brushing and other methods, to remove the ash, impurities and non-medicinal parts, the drug clean and pure. Such as picking off the acacia flowers in the branches, leaves, brush off loquat leaves, stone reed leaves back west of the fluff, scrape off the thick Park, meat, such as coarse skin.

(2) crushing treatment: the use of pounding, grinding, pounds, filing and other methods to make the drug crushed to meet the requirements of the preparation and other concoctions. Such as oysters, keel crushed for easy decoction, mother of pearl pounded powder for easy swallowing; rhinoceros horn, antelope horn pounds into thin slices, or filed into powder, easy to prepare and take.

(3) cut processing: the use of cut, guillotine method, the drug cut into certain specifications, so that the active ingredients of the drug is easy to bath out, and easy to carry out other concoctions, but also conducive to drying, storage and transfer of weighing. According to the nature of the herbs and medical needs, slicing has many specifications. For example, Tianma, betel nut should be cut into thin slices, zedoary, atractylodes should be cut into thick slices, astragalus, chickweed should be cut into diagonal slices, white peony, licorice should be cut into round slices, cinnamon, Houpu should be cut into disc slices, mulberry white bark, loquat leaf should be cut into silk, white grass root, ephedra should be guillotined into segments, poria, Pueraria lobata should be cut into pieces, and so on.

2. Water system:

The method of treating herbs with water or other liquid auxiliaries is called the water system method. The purpose of the water system is mainly to clean the drug, soften the drug, adjust the medicinal properties. Commonly used are drenching, washing, soaking, bleaching, dipping, moistening, water flying and so on. Here are three commonly used methods.

(1) Run: also known as boring or volts. According to the softness of the texture of the herbs, the processing of the temperature, tools, with showering, washing, soaking, dipping, drying, covering, voluntarily run, dew run, packet run, double run, double run, and other methods, so that the water or other liquid auxiliary Xu Xu into the premise of no or little loss of efficacy, so that the herbs are softened to facilitate the cutting of tablets. Such as drenching wet thorns, soaking wet betel nut, wine washing wet angelica, ginger juice moistened thick Park, voluntarily moistened Tianma, cover moistened rhubarb and so on.

(2) Bleaching: the drug will be placed in a wide water or long water impregnation for a period of time, and repeatedly change the water to remove the fishy flavor, salt and toxic components of the method known as bleaching. Such as kombu, seaweed, salt epiphyllum bleaching salt, purple river car bleaching to remove the fishy flavor.

(3) water fly: the Department of drugs in the water by the nature of the sedimentation of the herbs to take the method of very fine powder. Will not dissolve in water after crushing the herbs in the milk bowl or grinding trough with water *** research, mass production is used ball mill grinding, and then add a large amount of water, stirring, the coarser particles of the powder that is sinking, fine powder suspension in water, pouring; coarse particles and then fly and then research. Pour out of the suspension precipitated, separated, dried into a very fine powder. The powder made by this method is not only fine, but also reduces the loss of powder flying in the grinding. Commonly used in minerals, shellfish drugs powder. Such as fly cinnabar, fly glycerite, fly andrography.

3. fire system:

(1) fried: fried yellow, fried charcoal, fried charcoal and other degrees of frying method. Fried yellow, fried charcoal so that the drug is easy to crush processing, and ease of medicinal properties; seeds of drugs after frying is easy to dissolve the active ingredients in the decoction. Fried charcoal can moderate the potency of the drug, side effects, or to enhance the efficacy of its astringent hemostasis. There are also mixed solid auxiliary materials such as soil, bran, rice fried, can reduce the drug *** sex, enhance the efficacy, such as soil fried atractylodes, bran fried Hovenia, rice fried Zanthoxylum, and so on. With sand or talc, clam powder with the fried method used to be called hot, the drug is heated evenly crispy, easy to decoct the active ingredients or easy to take, such as sand fried andrographis paniculata, clam powder fried gelatin, and so on.

(2) sizzling: with liquid auxiliaries mixing fried drugs, so that the auxiliaries penetrate into the drug tissue, in order to change the nature of the drug, enhance the efficacy or reduce the side effects of the concoction is called sizzling. Usually use liquid auxiliaries such as honey, wine, vinegar, ginger juice, salt water, children's stools. For example, honey astragalus, licorice can enhance the role of tonifying qi; honey baking Bacopa monnieri, winter flowers can enhance the role of moistening the lungs and relieve cough; wine baking rhizoma rhizoma rhizoma can enhance the work of blood circulation; vinegar baking incense can enhance the effect of liver pain; salt baking Cortex Eucommia can enhance the function of tonifying the kidneys; wine baking Changshan can alleviate the role of vomiting, and so on.

(3) forging: the drug with fierce fire directly or indirectly forging, so that the texture is brittle, easy to crush, give full play to the efficacy. Hard mineral medicine or shellfish medicine more direct fire forging, forging to the degree of red, such as quartz, sea clamshells. Indirect forging is to place the drug in a fire-resistant container closed forging, to the extent that the bottom of the container red through, such as the system of blood charcoal, Chen brown charcoal and so on.

(4) simmering: the use of wet flour or wet paper wrapped in drugs, placed in the hot fire ash heated to the face or paper burnt black to the degree that can reduce the potency of the drug and side effects, such as simmering ginger, simmering Gansui, simmering meat Doukou and so on.

4. Water and fire **** system:

(1) Cooking: is the use of water or liquid auxiliaries and drugs **** with the heating method. Such as vinegar boiled coriander can reduce the toxicity, wine boiled scutellaria can enhance the effect of clearing lung heat.

(2) Steaming: is the use of water vapor or water heating method of drugs. Such as wine steamed rhubarb can moderate the effect of diarrhea. Some drugs by repeated steaming, sun, in order to obtain the role of medical needs. Such as He Shouwu after repeated steaming and sunshine no longer have diarrhea force and can tonify the liver and kidney, benefit essence and blood.

(3) quenching: is the drug burning red, quickly into the cold water or liquid auxiliaries, so that the method of crisp. After quenching is not only easy to crush, and auxiliary materials are extremely absorbent, can play the expected therapeutic effect. Such as vinegar quenching natural copper, turtle shells, Huanglian boiled juice quenching glycerite and so on.

(4) PPPPP: is the drug quickly into the boiling water briefly scribbled, immediately remove the method. Often used in the kind of drugs in the skin and fleshy juicy drugs dry processing.

5. Other methods:

Commonly used are germination, fermentation, frosting and part of the legal system. Its purpose is to change the original performance of the drug, increase the new therapeutic effect, reduce toxicity or side effects, or make the drug more effective high quality and pure. Such as the germination of rice, wheat; fermentation method to obtain Shenqu, tempeh; Croton oil to take cream, watermelon processing cream; legal system, such as half-summer.