Herbal medicine needs to be processed if it is to be used as medicine

　　Traditional Chinese medicine has a history of thousands of years of development. Traditional Chinese medicine mainly relies on traditional Chinese medicine to treat diseases and save lives. The development process of traditional Chinese medicine also lasts for thousands of years. At least in the Shennong era, there should be a legend that Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs. To treat diseases with traditional Chinese medicine, you don't just put the grass from the field into a pot and boil it directly. Instead, it needs to be processed. This process is called the processing of traditional Chinese medicine.

　　1. Stir-fried

　　Heat the medicine in the pot and stir-fry until it reaches the required method.

　　Stir-fried

　　Without adding auxiliary ingredients, it can be divided into three types: fried yellow, fried charred, and fried charcoal according to the frying time and temperature. Stir-frying involves frying the medicinal materials over slow fire until the surface is slightly yellow or the inherent smell of the medicinal materials can be smelled. Such as almonds, gorgon seeds, lotus seeds, polygala, jujube kernels, etc. Stir-fried medicinal materials are stir-fried until the surface is burnt brown, such as Jiao Zhao, Jiao Shenqu, Jiao Atractylodes, Jiao Gardenia, etc. The charcoal frying method uses strong fire to stir-fry the surface of the medicinal materials until they are black and the interior is burnt brown. Spray water on them and let them dry a little before taking them out of the pot. Pour them onto a wet bamboo flat, spread them out, and let them cool before packaging. Such as Diyu charcoal, Platycladus orientalis charcoal, Eucommia ulmoides charcoal, Guanzhong charcoal, etc.

　　Fried bran

　　First heat the pot, add a certain amount of bran (approximately 0.4kg for each kilogram of medicinal materials), add the medicinal materials when smoking, stir-fry until the surface of the medicinal materials is slightly yellow, take it out, and sift out the bran. Such as Atractylodes, Chinese yam, Citrus aurantium, Trigonella, etc.

　　Stir-fried

　　Break the Zaoxin soil into pieces, and the dosage is about 30% of the weight of the medicinal materials. Put it in the pot and stir-fry until it is light, add the medicinal materials, stir-fry until the surface of the medicinal materials is evenly coated with an earthy color, take it out and sift away the soil powder. Such as Atractylodes macrocephala, yam, white peony root, etc.

　　Fried rice

　　Pour the rice into a pot sprayed with water and heat it until the rice sticks to the bottom of the pot. When it starts to smoke, pour in the medicinal ingredients and stir-fry gently until the medicinal ingredients change color. Take it out and sieve out the rice grains. The dosage is about 40% of the weight of the medicinal materials. Such as stir-fried Adenophora miltiorrhiza, Salvia miltiorrhiza, etc.

　　2. Ironing

　　Heat and stir-fry the medicinal materials. The temperature is higher than that of the stir-frying method and the heat is even. There are usually three types.

　　Sand ironing

　　Heat the sand in a pot, make a hole in the sand, put in the medicinal materials broken into large pieces, bury them, and stir-fry until the surface of the medicinal materials is swollen or crispy, then pick out the medicinal materials or quench them in vinegar and let them cool. Such as turtle shell, turtle shell, mountain beetle, hedgehog skin, dog spine, ginger, nux vomica, etc.

　　Clam powder blanched

　　Take clam powder and blanch it in sand until it bulges. Such as donkey hide gelatin, fish maw, etc.

　　Puhuangtang

　　Take Puhuang and scald it with sand until it bulges. Such as donkey hide gelatin beads.

　　3. Forged

　　Medicinal materials are calcined with fire, usually in two types.

　　Forging over direct fire

　　Place the medicinal materials on a charcoal or coke smokeless stove and burn them until red, then take them out. Such as keel bones, dragon teeth, shellfish, gold and stone, etc.

　　boring

　　Put the medicinal materials in the pot, cover it with another pot, seal the joints with yellow mud, put a heavy object on top, stick a piece of white paper on the bottom of the pot, and heat until the white paper turns brown. Such as raw charcoal, wick charcoal, brown charcoal, blood residual charcoal, etc.

　　4. Simmer

　　Wrap the medicinal materials in wet flour and simmer in a hot talcum powder pot until the surface is browned. Or wrap the medicinal materials in layers with wet paper and heat to remove some of the oil. Such as simmering wood incense, simmering nutmeg, etc.

　　5. Burn

　　The medicinal materials are heated over a flame for a short time so that the surface of the medicinal materials is charred but the interior is not affected. Such as burning deer antlers, etc.

　　6. Cannon

　　Bury the medicinal materials in hot coals and blast them until they swell and explode. Or place it in a high-heat pot and fry until the surface is browned and cracked. Like cannon ginger.

　　7. Roast

　　A processing method in which medicinal materials and liquid excipients are heated together to burn the excipients into the tissue of the medicinal materials.

　　The above are the common methods of processing traditional Chinese medicine. There are several main reasons why traditional Chinese medicine needs to be processed, such as to facilitate the decoction of active ingredients, change the properties of the medicine, neutralize toxicity, etc. In short, these are methods that were developed by predecessors after a lot of experiments. We should stand on the basis of our predecessors and carry forward the culture of traditional Chinese medicine!