How long can Chinese medicine bags be stored?

In the past, when people took Chinese medicine, they would put the bags of Chinese medicinal materials in a casserole and boil them. The boiling of Chinese medicine is a relatively long process, so it took a relatively long time invisibly. However, with continuous progress, Chinese medicine hospitals now have launched medicines that are boiled for patients to take, and patients only need to take the bags of Chinese medicine soup home and take them according to the dosage, which is very convenient. So the question that follows is, how long can this kind of Chinese medicine bag be preserved?

It is best to store the prepared Chinese herbal medicine in a cool and low-temperature place. If it is stored in a cold environment such as a refrigerator, it will easily affect the efficacy of the medicine. The medicine will easily deteriorate if the temperature is high. The shelf life of this type of Chinese medicine depends on the packaging and season. If it is improperly packaged and contains bubbles, or if the weather is hot, the shelf life will be shorter. It can usually be stored for a week.

Here are some contraindications for taking Chinese medicine:

1. Contraindications for the combination of Chinese medicines: Certain drugs can produce opposite or antagonistic relationships after formulation, which may reduce the efficacy of each other or cause toxic and side effects, so they are contraindicated for use together.

2. Contraindications for medication for pregnant women: Mainly to avoid fetal movement and abortion. Because most pregnant women have poor tolerance to extreme cold, extreme heat, strong purgatives, blood-breaking and blood-stasis-removing drugs, and highly toxic drugs, so the relevant drugs must be avoided.

3. Dietary taboos during medication: commonly known as dietary taboos, are mainly to avoid interfering factors when taking medicine in order to improve the efficacy of the medicine. They can be divided into two categories: dietary taboos corresponding to a certain medicine and dietary taboos when taking medicine under different disease conditions. For the former, ginseng should be avoided with radish, turtle shell should be avoided with amaranth, licorice should be avoided with silver carp, shanshan should be avoided with onion, and poria should be avoided with vinegar, etc. The latter means that when taking medicine for chronic diseases, one should avoid eating raw or cold food; during the treatment of febrile diseases, one should avoid eating spicy and greasy food; for carbuncles, ulcers, and skin diseases, one should avoid eating fish, shrimp, goose meat, and spicy food.

4. Chinese medicine should not be taken with sugar

Some people add sugar to Chinese medicine when taking it because the decoction is bitter and difficult to swallow. In this regard, relevant experts point out that some Chinese medicines are not suitable for taking after adding sugar. Adding sugar to the medicine reduces the bitterness while also reducing the efficacy.

From the introduction, we can see that the storage time of Chinese medicine bags is limited. Generally, the medicinal materials will deteriorate after more than a week, and can only be stored for a maximum of two days in high temperature weather. Therefore, when needed, do not extract too much bagged Chinese medicine at one time, and do not cause the Chinese medicine to deteriorate and lose its original efficacy in order to save some time.