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, so as 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 Cinnamomum cassia, etc.
Crushing treatment-such as oyster and keel mashed for easy boiling; Fritillaria cirrhosa powder is easy to swallow; Buffalo horn and antelope horn are sliced or filed 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 segments; Poria cocos and pueraria lobata should be cut into pieces.
Water system
Wash-put the medicinal materials in clean water, wash them quickly, remove floating debris and sinking dirt, take them out in time and dry them for later use.
Spray-spray the medicinal materials that are not suitable for soaking with a small amount of water to make them clean and soften.
Soak-Soak the hard medicinal materials in water for a period of time to soften them on the premise of ensuring their efficacy.
Moisturizing —— According to the soft and hard texture of medicinal materials, the temperature during processing and tools, various methods such as drenching, washing, soaking, airing, soaking, covering, moistening and dew moistening are used to make clear water or other liquid auxiliary materials slowly enter people's 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 powder of medicinal materials by the sedimentation property of medicinal materials in water. It is often used for pulverizing minerals and shellfish. Such as flying cinnabar, flying calamine and flying realgar.
Fire system
Stir-frying-such as fried atractylodes, bran fried Fructus Aurantii, rice fried Mylabris, etc., can reduce the irritation of drugs and enhance the curative effect; Stir-fried pangolin in sand and donkey-hide gelatin in clam powder, etc., the medicine becomes crisp when heated evenly, and it is easy to fry the effective components or take them conveniently.
Roasting-such as honey-roasted Astragalus membranaceus, honey-roasted Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch., wine-roasted Ligusticum chuanxiong, vinegar-roasted Cyperus rotundus, brine-roasted Eucommia ulmoides, etc., can change the medicinal properties, enhance the curative effect or reduce the side effects.
Calcination-such as calcined oyster, calcined gypsum, etc., makes the medicinal materials crisp and easy to crush, and gives full play to the curative effect.
Simmer-the method of wrapping medicinal materials in wet flour and paper, heating them in hot ash, or heating them separately with straw paper and decoction pieces is called simmering method.
Baking-the method of heating medicinal materials with low fire and drying them is called baking.
Water-fire system
Boiling-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 drugs and drying succulent drugs.
Quenching-after the medicine is calcined red, it is quickly put into cold water or liquid auxiliary materials to make it crisp.
Other methods
Frost-making-products made by squeezing seed medicinal materials to remove oil or recrystallizing mineral medicinal materials are called frost. The corresponding processing 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 mold by using mold, and changing the medicinal properties of the original drugs to produce new drugs is called fermentation. Such as divine comedy and fermented soybean.
Germination-after soaking the seed medicinal materials with germination ability in water, it is often kept at a certain humidity and temperature to germinate buds, which is called germination. Such as rice sprouts, malt, soybean yellow rolls, etc.