Practical! Precautions for decocting and taking Chinese medicine

When you see a Chinese medicine doctor, the doctor will usually instruct you how to take the medicine, and if you take it home to decoct, the decoction method will be clearly written. If the preparation and recipe of Chinese medicine are correct, but the decoction and consumption are not done properly, the effect may be greatly reduced or even lost.

How to decoct Chinese medicine without damaging its effectiveness

1. Decoction apparatus

It is best to use sand pot or sand jar. First, it is chemically stable and not easy to chemically react with the drug ingredients; second, it has uniform heat conduction and good heat retention. Secondly, white enamelware or stainless steel pots are available.

Decoction avoid using iron, copper, aluminum and other metal utensils, because one is that these metal elements themselves also have some of the sexual effects of Chinese medicine, fear and disease; second, the surface of these vessels, often covered with a layer of the metal elements and oxygen generated by the oxide, it is easy to chemical reaction with the drug components in the liquid, or the loss of the original medicinal substances and reduce the efficacy, and even produce substances harmful to the body and cause harm to the organism.

2. Water for decoction

It must be odorless, clean and clarified, containing few minerals and impurities, and free of pollution. Any water that can be used for drinking can be used for decocting Chinese medicine.

3. How much water to add

Generally, the amount of water used is about 2cm after the tablet is properly pressurized and the liquid surface is submerged. However, it can be flexible, if the texture is hard, viscous, or needs to be decocted for a long time, the amount of water can be slightly more than the general drug; if the texture is loose, or the active ingredients are easy to volatilize, and the decoction time is short, then the liquid surface can be submerged in the drug.

4. Soak before decoction

Soaking before decoction is good for the full dissolution of active ingredients and can shorten the decoction time. Most of the drugs should be soaked in cold water, and the general drugs can be soaked for 20-30 minutes, and the seeds and fruits-based drugs can be soaked for a longer time.

But in summer, the temperature is high, soaking time should not be too long to avoid corruption and deterioration.

5. Decoction fire and time

Decoction of general medicine, it is advisable to first martial fire after the fire, that is, before boiling with a large fire, after boiling with a small fire to maintain a slight boiling state, so as not to overflow the juice or boil dry too quickly.

For antiphlogistic drugs and aromatic drugs, it is generally better to boil them quickly with martial fire and maintain them with civil fire for about 10-15 minutes. The active ingredients are not easily decocted out of minerals, bones and horns, shells, crustaceans and tonic drugs, it is generally advisable to decoct them for a long time with civil fire to make the active ingredients fully dissolved.

6. Strain the juice while it is still hot

After the medicine is decocted, the juice should be strained while it is still hot. Because the temperature of the liquid decreases after a long time, some active ingredients will be precipitated due to reduced solubility, and some of them will be lost due to the adsorption of the residue, thus affecting the therapeutic effect.

7. Decoction times

Generally speaking, a dose of medicine can be decocted three times and should be decocted at least twice.

Because when the concentration of the solution inside and outside the herb reaches equilibrium, the active ingredient will no longer be dissolved because of the osmotic pressure balance. At this time, the active ingredient can only continue to be dissolved if the solution is filtered out and decocted again with water.

8. Method of decoction

General drugs can be added to the decoction at the same time.

However, some drugs require different decoction time due to their nature, performance and clinical use. Some of them need special treatment, and even the same drug has different performance and clinical application due to different decoction time. Therefore, there are different requirements of decoction method, such as first decoction, second decoction, packet decoction, separate decoction, and yáng.

①First decoction: Ores, shells and other hard drugs should be decocted for about 30 minutes before being included in other decoctions because the active ingredients are not easy to be decocted. Such as turtle nail, turtle nail, natural copper. The main purpose of decoction is to detoxify the toxin.

②After decoction: If the active ingredient of the drug is easily volatilized or destroyed when decocted, it should be decocted afterwards and put into other drugs when they are ready to be decocted, for example, peppermint and incense.

③Package decoction: refers to the pollen, small seeds and ore-type drugs, should be wrapped with gauze or its thin cloth, and then put into the pot decoction. Avoid turbidity of the medicine after decoction, or reduce the bad stimulation to the throat and digestive tract. For example, Simmondsia, Cyclamen, Hypericum, Phellodendron, etc.

④ Separate decoction: It is appropriate to decoct certain valuable herbs separately to avoid the active ingredients from the decoction being adsorbed by other dregs and causing waste. For example, ginseng.

⑤Melting: For colloidal, sticky and fusible drugs, they are easy to adhere to other dregs and the bottom of the pot, which is wasteful and easy to scorch, so they should be melted separately.

To melt them is to put them in a bowl and then just wash down the hot soup to melt them. For example, gum.

⑥Rinse: Natural juice and drugs that dissolve in water should be taken with other decoction or boiling water. For example, honey and mannitol.

Time of taking Chinese medicine affects the efficacy of the medicine

Chinese medicine has a cloud: “The healing of the disease is not only in the formula must be sick, although the formula is sick, but not served in the law, it is not only useless, but harmful, this should not be ignored.” It means that whether the disease can be well, in addition to the right prescription, the method of taking medicine must also be correct, otherwise not only will not get well, but will aggravate the disease.

Liao Xiaohong, a pharmacist in charge of the pharmacy department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, introduced that whether the method of taking medicine is appropriate has a certain impact on the efficacy. Some drugs must be taken at a certain time in order to be effective due to their own characteristics.

It is important to choose the right time to take Chinese medicine, so that the body’s original rhythm of physiological changes can be followed, making full use of the body’s positive anti-disease factors to enhance the effectiveness of the drug, but also to reduce adverse drug reactions.

If the timing of taking herbal medicine is not right and disrupts the physiological rhythm of the human body, it may produce or increase the adverse drug reactions. Therefore, in order to bring out the best efficacy of herbal medicine, one should not neglect to take herbal medicine at the right time, or consult herbalists or pharmacists if one is not sure when to take the medicine.

Take Chinese medicine and master several time points

In the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, it is written, “If the disease is above the chest and diaphragm, eat first and then take the medicine; if the disease is below the heart and abdomen, take the medicine first and then eat.”

Liao Xiaohong, a Chinese pharmacist in charge of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that the time to take medicine should be decided according to the up and down of the disease, the severity of the disease, the dosage form of the medicine, and the characteristics of the disease. And when to take the ordinary people’s concern, the main mastery of the following points in time.

Take by time

Early in the morning, it is advisable to take kidney tonics, water-repellent and damp medicines, dewormers and emetics.

Before noon, it is advisable to take sweating and relieving the symptoms of the body, as well as medicines that benefit qi and raise yang. The ancient medical practitioners believed that “before noon is the part of Yang, when sweating; after noon is the part of Yin, when sweating is not appropriate.” Not only sweat medicine, but also some doctors believe that all go table to penetrate the evil medicine, are appropriate to take before noon. The ancient medicine for spleen deficiency and gas trapped diseases formulated by the tonic in the benefit of qi soup, ginseng and tuning in the soup and other beneficial qi rising Yang medicine, are stressed before taking the medicine before noon, is to make people Yang qi to reach the reason.

After midday or at night, it is advisable to take diaphoretic medicines. The time of taking diarrhea medicine is roughly divided into three kinds: one is to take the medicine after noon; the other is to take the medicine at daytime, and the third is to take it at night. It is not advisable to take them before noon.

● Into the night It is advisable to take medicine for nourishing Yin and nourishing blood. The ancients used Six Flavored Dihuang Pills to nourish yin, emphasizing that they should be taken at night, and Angelica Six Yellow Soup to treat yin deficiency and night sweats.

● Night lying It is advisable to take tranquilizers and astringent sperm-stopping drugs for the treatment of dream emission and slippery sperm; slow down agents should be taken before bedtime to facilitate absorption the next morning.

Take before and after meals according to

● Take before meals As most of the food will have an effect on the absorption of herbal medicines, the stomach is in a state of emptiness before meals, which is conducive to the absorption of drugs into the gastrointestinal tract, so it is advisable to take deficiency medicines before meals.

● Take after meals Some drugs have a certain stimulating effect on the stomach, so stomachic and antiphlogistic drugs as well as drugs that are stimulating to the stomach should be taken after meals.