The benefits of decoction of Chinese medicine

Physical illness is something that we cannot avoid in our lives, but many diseases require us to take medicine for treatment. However, if we want to treat many diseases more thoroughly, it is best to use traditional Chinese medicine for treatment. Although the effect of traditional Chinese medicine in treating diseases is relatively slow, the side effects on the body are relatively small. However, there are certain requirements for the decoction method of Chinese medicine. Let’s learn about the benefits of decocting Chinese medicine.

The benefits of decoction of Chinese medicine

"Baojian" is a special method of wrapping the medicine with gauze or a thin white cloth bag and then putting it into the medicine pot together with other medicinal materials for decoction. It has three characteristics:

(1) It is beneficial to fully decoct the medicinal materials with fine and light texture.

Some small and light medicinal materials, such as Cuscuta australis, Plantago australis, Lepidium melongena, Lygodium japonicum, Pollen Typhae, and Trichosanthes kirilowii, have small particles and strong buoyancy. If they are not wrapped and decocted, they will be difficult to sink to the bottom of the pot and be fully decocted. Instead, they will float on the surface of the soup and overflow from the frying pan when boiling. After decocting, it will also be difficult to filter the juice. If the frying method is adopted, the above problems will not occur.

(2) Prevent animal and plant hair from mixing into the medicine and causing side effects.

Some animal and plant medicinal materials contain special fluff or other debris. If they are not decocted before taking, they will irritate the throat and digestive tract and cause side effects such as nausea and vomiting, such as Inula japonica, loquat leaves, hairy bird's nest, cormorant saliva, etc. Among them, Inula japonica has a capitulate inflorescence containing many white pappus; there are brown fine hairs on the back of loquat leaves. These substances can easily fall off and mix into the soup during the decocting process, causing many adverse reactions; in addition, cormorant saliva contains many undigested fish bones, scales, etc. If these indigestible debris are directly mixed into the medicine without being decocted, they will inevitably injure the esophagus and gastrointestinal tract when taken.

When "wrapping and decocting" medicinal materials, they should usually not be tied too tightly. They should also be packed in larger cloth bags, and they should be loose. Otherwise, the medicinal materials will swell when in contact with water and be tightly bunched together, making it difficult to decoct the medicinal juice, thus affecting the efficacy.

The above is an introduction to the benefits of decocting Chinese medicine. After understanding it, we know that decocting Chinese medicine is generally suitable for smaller medicines, and it is easy to overflow from the pot when decocting. In this way, we can decoct Chinese medicine better in our lives. In addition, if you want better options for Chinese medicine, you must use the medicine under the guidance of a doctor.