What is the common sense of Chinese medicine decoction?

Traditional Chinese medicine is not unfamiliar to people, but many people feel confused in this regard. They don’t know which traditional Chinese medicine corresponds to which disease. This is wrong and will cause people to take the wrong medicine and bring many bad consequences. It is very necessary for people to understand and master the common sense of traditional Chinese medicine decoction, and people must learn it. Next, let us learn about the common sense of traditional Chinese medicine decoction.

Frying utensils

The best utensil for decocting medicine is a casserole. Casserole is a kind of pottery. Pottery has uniform heat conductivity, stable chemical properties, is not easy to undergo chemical changes with drug ingredients, and can keep warm. It is the best choice for decocting Chinese medicine. If there is no pottery, white enamelware and aluminum pots can be used instead. But avoid using utensils made of copper, iron, tin, etc. This is because iron, copper and tin are also traditional Chinese medicines, and their use may not be suitable for the condition; secondly, these metal elements are easy to react with the chemical components in traditional Chinese medicines, which may reduce the efficacy at the very least and produce toxic side effects at the worst. For example, decocting medicine in an iron pan often produces a water-insoluble tannic acid iron, which makes the medicine liquid turn black and green, and the taste of the medicine is astringent and fishy. It will change the nature and taste of the medicine, making it not only incapable of curing diseases, but may even become toxic and endanger life.

Soak before frying

Soaking in clean water before decocting will help to extract the effective ingredients. This is because when herbal medicines dry, water evaporates, the cell walls and trachea shrink, the cell fluid dries up, and the substances therein exist in the cells in the form of crystals or amorphous precipitation. Soaking before frying can make the cells swell again. When water further penetrates, the cells can expand and burst, releasing a large amount of effective ingredients. The soaking time before decocting should be 30 to 60 minutes, and the soaking time for medicines mainly composed of seeds, fruits and roots should be 60 minutes. In summer, the temperature is high, so the soaking time can be shorter; conversely, in winter, it can be longer. The water for soaking should be room temperature or warm water (25℃～50℃), and boiling water should never be used.

Chinese medicine generally does not need to be cleaned before decoction

Chinese herbal medicines are mostly raw materials and are usually processed before being sold. There is usually no need to wash them before decocting. If you do feel that the herbs are a little dirty, rinse them quickly with water before soaking. Do not soak or rinse them to prevent the loss of a large amount of effective ingredients that are easily soluble in water, thus affecting the efficacy of the traditional Chinese medicine.

Most medicines can be decocted at the same time, but some medicines require different decocting times due to their different properties, performance and clinical uses. Some require special treatment, and even the same medicine may have different properties and clinical applications due to different decoction times. Therefore, the method of decocting decoctions should also be taken into consideration.

Pre-decocting: The purpose of pre-decocting is to increase the solubility of the drug, reduce the toxicity of the drug, and give full play to the therapeutic effect. The following three situations require frying first.

① Minerals: Shellfish and hornworm drugs have hard texture and the effective ingredients are not easy to extract, so they must be decocted first. Such as gypsum, calcite, red ochre, magnetite, hematite, pumice, realite, natural copper, oyster, stone cassia, mother of pearl, clam shell, corrugated stone, tortoise shell, turtle shell, pangolin, dragon bone, dragon teeth, turtle shell, buffalo horn, etc., can be crushed and fry for 30 minutes.

②Toxic drugs: such as Aconitum, Aconite, Rhizoma Phytolaccae, etc., must be decocted for 1 to 2 hours first. Decocting first and decocting for a long time can achieve the purpose of reducing or removing toxicity.

③ Certain herbal medicines: such as Rhizoma Datura, Cannabis Sativa, and Dendrobium Officinale, are only effective if they are decocted first.

The above introduces in detail the common sense of Chinese medicine decoction. We can see that there are many issues to pay attention to when decocting Chinese medicine. If we are not careful, it will easily lead to many mistakes, and thus fail to achieve the desired effect. This not only wastes time and energy, but also wastes Chinese medicine materials, which is a relatively bad consequence.