Repair system
Trimming is the simplest processing method, which can also be said to be a preparation stage of drug processing, mainly by trimming to remove impurities and turn large pieces into small pieces for further processing. Cooking.
The repair methods include picking, picking, rubbing, rubbing, grinding, brushing, scraping, weighing, planing, peeling, cutting, tamping, knocking, grinding, winnowing, reeding, sieving, splitting, sawing, tying and squeezing.
1. Sorting: used to sort the parts and impurities that are not used as medicine, generally used to clean nuts, fruit stalks, branches, peels, moth-eaten, moldy grains, oily seeds (oil particles), clods, sand, etc. Such as jujube kernel and arborvitae kernel, forsythia suspensa fruit stalk, almond oil, Petunia and Schizonepeta tenuifolia.
2. Picking: remove the stems and petioles left by drugs such as roots, flowers and leaves to make the drugs pure. Prunella vulgaris will pick stems, and Sichuan will pick hairy roots and petioles in time.
3. Kneading: After some drugs must be crushed, the stem impurities, such as mulberry leaves and stinky plane leaves, are removed by sieving and winnowing; Some soft and strip-shaped drugs, such as dictyophora indusiata and refined scarecrow, must be kneaded into a ball for easy preparation and decoction.
4. Rub: Use two wooden boards and rub the medicine back and forth in the middle, so that you can peel and rub it, such as radish seeds, hemp seeds and burdock.
5. Grinding: Use a stone mill to pad the grinding core and grind off skins, shells and thorns. Drugs such as lentil coat, tribulus terrestris and xanthium sibiricum.
6. Brush: use a brush to brush off dust or fluff on the surface of the medicine, such as loquat leaves and pyrrosia leaves to brush off fluff on the back of the leaves; Brush concha arcae and oyster to remove sand.
7. Scraping: Scrape the rough skin or moss outside medicinal materials, such as Eucommia ulmoides, Cinnamomum cassia, Magnolia officinalis and Phellodendron amurense. Use iron knives, bamboo knives or porcelain pieces; Shaving your hair like a golden ridge makes you equal.
8. Tamping: Use a tamping knife or a wooden plane to tamp the medicine into thin slices, which are convenient for decoction, such as antler slices, antelope horn slices, sandalwood slices, sappan wood slices, etc.
9. Peeling: After knocking the medicine, remove the seed kernel from the shell, or remove the kernel from the shell, such as nutmeg, cardamom, Amomum villosum shell, gentleman kernel, Shi Lian meat, ginkgo, peach kernel and almond.
10, Cutting: Cutting is widely used in rhizome, rattan, bark, leaves and grass. The original drug or softening drug is cut into pieces or small pieces with a knife or slicer according to the different drugs. Generally, it can be divided into cross-cutting wafers, oblique slices, straight slices, horizontal or straight slices, squares and so on. The thickness and length of the slice are briefly introduced as follows:
(1) Roots, rhizomes and vines: the hard ones are finely cut, about 1.5mm, such as Radix Angelicae Pubescentis and Rhizoma Chuanxiong; Loose texture, about 3mm thick, such as cistanche deserticola and Cynomorium songaricum, slender can be cut into small pieces, about 1- 1.5 cm long, such as cogongrass rhizome, reed rhizome and Polygonum multiflorum Thunb.
⑵ Leather: hard and thick, can be cut into silk, with a width of about 6mm, such as Magnolia Officinalis and Cortex Phellodendri; Loose fine materials can be cut into wide filaments with a width of about 1- 1.5 cm, such as Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. Crispy texture can't be cut, such as cortex Lycii and Radix Polygalae.
(3) Leaves: if the texture is hard but not fragile, cut into filaments with a width of about 0.3- 1.5 cm, such as loquat leaves and pyrrosia.
⑶ Whole grass: The thinner stems can be cut into 1.5cm long segments, such as Herba Ephedrae and Herba Menthae, and the thicker ones can be cut into 0.6-LCM long segments, such as Herba Agastaches and Eupatorium odoratum.
5. Flowers, fruits and seeds: large or hard-to-dry fruits can be cut into pieces, about 3-4 pieces, such as hawthorn and papaya; Some peels can be shredded, about 0.5-LCM wide, such as Trichosanthes kirilowii; Flowers and smaller fruits and seeds are generally not cut.
Due to the different hardness and size of drugs, except for a few medicinal materials, which can be directly cut into dry goods, they are generally treated with different degrees of water immersion, water washing and water spraying. So that they become wet and soft before cutting. Before cutting, they need to be baked and steamed.
The methods of moistening medicine can be summarized as follows: soaking in water, such as betel nut; Water washing method, such as clematis; Submerged method, such as cassia twig; Water spraying method, such as Fructus Aurantii and Herba Menthae; Water drenching method, such as Schizonepeta tenuifolia and Pogostemon cablin. Moistening and cutting methods, such as Sanji and Eucalyptus; Steam cutting method, such as Spatholobus suberectus, Cistanche deserticola, Scutellaria baicalensis, etc. Stewing and cutting methods, such as radix aucklandiae and nutmeg; Roasting and cutting, such as Radix Angelicae Pubescentis and Radix Angelicae Sinensis.
In a word, slicing is not only beneficial to the drying and crushing of medicinal materials during preparation, but also convenient for weighing in formula and decocting effective components during decoction.
1 1, Dao: It is a method of breaking or pulverizing drugs. Large quantities should be pounded with stone mortar, while small quantities should be pounded, such as ginger pounded juice, fresh pounded juice and Amomum villosum pounded.
12. Knock: Knock hard drugs into small pieces or broken particles with a hammer or wooden hammer, such as magnets, oysters, concha Haliotidis, meretrix meretrix, etc. Almond, peach kernel and Amomum villosum are crushed by manual or mechanical tapping, and Ophiopogon japonicus can be tapped to remove the heart.
13, grinding: put the medicinal materials into a grinding tank (iron boat) and grind them into powder.
14, winnowing, reeding and sieving: they are all used to remove non-medicinal parts and impurities in drugs. Wind separation can be used to remove leaf debris, screening method can be used to remove branches, and reed method can be used to remove ash debris. Generally, impurity removal method is also used.
15. Chopping and sawing: Chopping or sawing drugs with thick, large and long branches that are difficult to slice, such as pine knots, Poria cocos, Spatholobus suberectus, antlers and wearing stones.
16, rolling method: rolling method: rolling medicinal materials into two pieces or together, such as Fructus Toosendan and Fructus Aurantii, but now they have been sliced mechanically. Squeezing method: the oil in the medicine is squeezed out by a squeezing bed to reduce toxicity and irritation, such as croton paste, groundsel paste and chestnut paste; Squeeze ginger juice after mashing ginger, and squeeze medicine juice when boiling cream to nourish medicine.
river system
The medicinal materials are washed and soaked. This is called water method. Its purpose is to make drugs clean (remove impurities, foreign bodies, non-medicinal salts, sediments, odor, etc.). ), and make the plant medicine soft and easy to slice; Make the mineral medicine pure and delicate, and reduce the toxic and side effects. Water production methods include cleaning, washing, soaking, wetting, pickling, extraction and water flying.
1, elutriation: washing with water to remove dirt and impurities on the drug surface. The elutriation method is suitable for seeds, fruits, relatively small tubers and rhizomes. In operation, the medicines are stirred in water to remove floating impurities, and washed repeatedly until the medicines are pure, such as Semen Cuscutae and Semen Vaccariae. This method is suitable for larger roots and rhizomes, and the washing time should not be too long to avoid losing its efficacy. For example, Notopterygium incisum and Saposhnikovia divaricata should act quickly and wash in water for a short time, which is also called "rushing to wash"; Some seeds containing a lot of mucus stick together after washing, which is not suitable for washing, such as plantain seeds and prickly heat; Shells and some animal medicines, such as oysters, concha Haliotidis, hedgehog skin, etc. They are all dirty and need to be washed for a long time.
2, drenching: medicinal materials are not directly put into water, but repeatedly drenched with water or other solutions (wine, vinegar). When wet, they are wrapped in straw bags or small bags to soften the medicinal materials and facilitate processing and cutting, such as mint and Eupatorium odoratum.
3. Soaking: Soaking is to soak medicinal materials in wine or vinegar for a short time, which can soften medicinal materials and facilitate cutting, such as clematis and Changshan.
Soaking is to soak drugs in water for a long time, which can reduce toxic substances of medicinal materials, such as Pinellia ternata and Nanxing, and remove impurities attached to animal medicinal materials, such as tortoise plastron, turtle shell, donkey skin and tiger bone. The soaking time varies with different regions, climates and seasons. It is necessary to change the water regularly and keep stirring to prevent the medicinal materials from mildew, rot and deterioration. The soaking time should be shorter in the season with higher temperature and longer in the season with lower temperature. Generally, it can be fished out after 78 achievements, and it is stuffy until it is completely soft. Animal Oracle bones need to be soaked in attachments until they rot and can be separated from Oracle bones.
4. Shui Piao: Soak the medicine in clear water, rinse it repeatedly, and dissolve it with water to remove the toxicity, salty taste and fishy smell of some medicinal materials, which is convenient for taking and enhances the therapeutic effect.
Shui Piao must pay attention to the season, time, water quantity and the number of water changes. The best season is spring and autumn, when the temperature is suitable, the summer temperature is high, perishable, and the winter temperature is low, which may lead to the deterioration of medicinal materials and affect the efficacy. Bleaching time is longer in cold days and shorter in warm days, depending on different drugs and medicinal parts, it is best to rinse with running water. The toxic rhizomes such as Pinellia ternata and Nanxing can be bleached for a long time, while seaweed and kelp are non-toxic and the rinsing time can be shorter.
5. Dyeing: Its purpose and method are similar to those of soaking and moistening, and it is suitable for rhizome medicinal materials. Generally, it can be soaked in water, or crushed with water, as well as wine and vinegar, such as rhubarb and coptis root.
6. Pickling: Pickling method is to soak medicinal materials with salt or ginger and alum, which can achieve the purpose of detoxification and antisepsis. For example, fresh aconite is salted with salt water, and fresh Pinellia is salted with fresh ginger and alum.
7. Extraction: refining, mainly dissolving crystalline salt drugs in water, precipitating, filtering out impurities, and recrystallizing to purify drugs, such as mirabilite.
8. Water flying: it is a method of making fine powder by using different drug particle sizes and different sedimentation rates in water. Generally used in mineral medicinal materials. In operation, water is added to grind the crushed medicine until there is no noise at the bottom of the mortar, then water is added to stir, so that the medicinal materials naturally float and sink, the upper suspension is poured out, and then water is added to grind the remaining coarse powder, and the operation is repeated until all the medicinal materials become suspension. Mix that suspensions, stan for precipitation, pouring out clear water, drying the precipitate in the sun, and grin into fine powder for later use.
Water flying can prevent the loss of medicinal materials during grinding, separate the water-soluble salts in the original medicine, make the medicine particularly delicate, easy to absorb when taken orally, and not hurt the stomach. When used externally, it can reduce irritation and improve curative effect. Therefore, insoluble minerals and shellfish, such as cinnabar, realgar, calamine, pearl powder, pearls and so on. It can be used as clothes, eye drops and pills for softening throat.
fire extinguisher system
Any method of directly or indirectly (or adding other auxiliary materials) heating medicinal materials on fire is collectively called pyrometallurgy. This method is widely used, and its purpose is to make hard drugs brittle into preparations, so that drugs that are difficult to decoct out effective components can easily exert their efficacy and prevent drugs from mildew. In addition, a few drugs are toxic or violent, which can reduce or eliminate toxicity and side effects after fire.
Although the fire method is widely used, some aromatic drugs such as mint, Elsholtzia, Amomum villosum and so on. Cannot be applied. Fire will volatilize the effective components of fragrance and lose its efficacy. Realgar and cinnabar in minerals can't be processed by fire, and toxic components such as arsenic and mercury are decomposed by fire, which aggravates toxicity.
According to the nature and clinical needs of drugs, the main methods to make drugs dry, crisp, brown or carbonized are frying (baking), roasting, frying, roasting, frying and burning.
1. Stir-frying: put the dried medicinal materials that have been repaired or processed and cut into a pot, heat them with fire, and keep turning them to a certain extent, which is called stir-frying. Is a common fire method, which can be divided into stir-frying and auxiliary material stir-frying:
⑴ Stir-fry: According to the degree of stir-fry, stir-fry can be divided into yellow, coke and charcoal.
(1) Stir-fry the medicinal materials in a pot, and heat them with low fire for a short time until the surface turns yellow, the inside is basically unchanged, and the inherent smell of the medicinal materials can be smelled, and the outside swells and bursts. Stir-frying makes medicinal materials swell, easy to stir-fry effective components, can correct odor, can destroy enzymes in glycosides-containing medicinal materials, and is beneficial to the preservation of medicinal materials. Such as stir-fried white peony root, stir-fried codonopsis pilosula, stir-fried almonds, stir-fried jujube kernels, and stir-fried cowherb seeds.
(2) Stir-frying: put the medicinal materials into a pot and heat them with strong fire until they are brown or brown outside, yellow inside and have a burnt taste. If Liuyou and Hawthorn are added, the efficacy of invigorating spleen and promoting digestion can be enhanced.
(3) Charcoal stir-frying: put the medicinal materials into a pot and heat them with strong fire until the surface is dry and black and the inside is brown or brown, which is called Charcoal stir-frying. In order to prevent all charring after frying and lose medicinal properties, turn it in time after cooking to promote heat dissipation, such as Sanguisorba charcoal and Sophora japonica charcoal. Carbonization can enhance hemostasis and convergence.
⑵ Stir-frying of auxiliary materials: according to the different auxiliary materials, it can be divided into bran stir-frying, soil stir-frying and rice stir-frying. And liquid auxiliary materials (honey, wine, bean jelly and the like). ) Add stir-fry and weigh.
1) bran frying: a method of smoking medicinal materials by using smoke generated when wheat bran is heated, called bran frying. Fried drugs with bran can enhance the function of strengthening spleen and stomach, reduce the bad irritation in drugs, or play the role of correcting taste and removing odor.
Operation method: firstly, heat the pot and spread a proper amount of dry bran in the pot. Bran will smoke when heated. When the smoke rises, add the medicinal materials and keep stirring. When the medicinal materials turn yellow, stir them immediately, pour them into an iron sieve, sieve off the parched bran and ash powder, and let them cool. If the pot is light in color, stew the herbs and bran together for a while. If the color is lighter, it is required.
The dosage of wheat bran is generally 10 kilograms of medicinal materials and 1 kilogram of wheat bran, depending on the yellowing degree of medicinal materials, such as fried atractylodes rhizome, bitter orange, stiff silkworm and white bark of Toona sinensis.
(2) Stir-fry with soil: stir-fry with kitchen soil and medicinal materials to make the medicinal materials brown or khaki. Because the heartwood is pungent, it has the effects of warming the middle warmer, stopping bleeding and stopping vomiting, and can neutralize gastric acid. Stir-frying with medicinal materials can enhance the functions of strengthening spleen and regulating stomach, and stopping vomiting and diarrhea.
Operation method: firstly, grind the kitchen soil into fine Lou, put it in a pot and fry it. When the soil is hot, after removing some volatiles, pour in the medicinal materials to be fried, fry until brown, then take it out of the pot and sieve out the kitchen soil.
There is no strict regulation on the amount of kitchen soil used for cooking. After frying with medicinal materials, hang a layer evenly. Such as fried atractylodes, Chinese yam, white peony root, etc.
(3) Stir-frying rice: stir-frying medicinal materials with rice and fumigating with heat and rice smoke can enhance the function of invigorating the middle energizer and qi, and reduce the dryness and toxicity of medicinal materials.
Operation method: put rice and medicinal materials in the same pot, stir-fry with slow fire until the rice is dark yellow and the medicine is smoked to yellow, take out the pot, sieve the rice and let it cool. For example, stir-fry Radix Codonopsis, Rhizoma Dioscoreae, and Mylabris to remove poison (rice should be discarded and buried deeply to avoid food poisoning such as chickens and ducks). )
(4) honey frying: the method of frying medicinal materials with honey. Honey is sweet, which has the functions of nourishing the middle energizer, moistening the lung, relieving cough, detoxicating and correcting taste. Therefore, honey-baked drugs can enhance the function of tonifying the middle energizer and moistening the lung. Operation method: firstly, put honey into a pot and boil it with slow fire to remove impurities and get refined honey. The methods of honey roasting include mixing honey and frying, adding official honey after frying, adding honey first and then adding medicine. Usually, add a little boiling water to refine honey and stir it evenly in the pot, then pour in the medicine, stir it constantly to make the honey and medicine mix evenly, suck the honey juice into the medicine, fry it until the color is yellow and not sticky, and then take it out of the pot to dry. Honey refining should be moderate, too old and too thick to fry, and the color is not bright; If it is too tender, the water will not dry easily and the medicine will stick to your hands easily.
The drugs that can nourish and moisten the lungs after honey roasting include roasted yellow, roasted licorice, roasted ephedra, roasted aster, roasted mulberry and so on.
Generally, the amount of medicinal honey per kilogram is about 400 grams, and the amount of honey used for flowers and plants is more, and the amount of honey used for polar stem seeds with hard constitution can be less.
⑤ Brewing with wine (decocting): a method of decocting drugs with wine. Ganxin's wine can induce drugs to ascend, promote blood circulation and dredge collaterals. After the medicinal materials are roasted with wine, they can relieve coldness, enhance the efficacy of promoting blood circulation and dredging collaterals, help the dissolution of alkaloids and volatile oils, improve the curative effect, and also have the effect of correcting odor and taste, such as Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, Ligusticum Chuanxiong, Angelica sinensis, Taxilli and Achyranthes bidentata.
Operation method: Spray the medicinal materials with appropriate amount of yellow wine or white wine, mix well, stew for a while, fry in a hot pot until yellow or dark yellow, and take out. You can also stir-fry the medicinal materials in the pot first, then slowly spray a certain amount of wine on the medicinal materials to make them inhale the medicinal materials, stir-fry until the medicinal materials are fragrant and slightly yellow in color, immediately take them out of the pot and let them cool for later use.
The amount of alcohol varies from medicine to medicine. Generally, 200 ~ 300ml of alcohol is used per kilogram of medicinal materials. When frying, it is necessary to master the heat, so that the medicinal materials can't smell burnt, and it is advisable to keep the color inside the medicinal materials unchanged.
6. vinegar frying: a method of frying medicinal materials with rice vinegar. Acetic acid is bitter and slightly warm, which can guide drugs into the liver, enhance the function of promoting circulation of qi and relieving pain, and combine with free alkaloids in drugs to form soluble salts, which makes the effective components easy to decoct, and has the functions of correcting taste, removing fishy smell and deodorizing.
Operation method: mix the medicine with a certain amount of rice vinegar, put it in a hot pot after the vinegar is absorbed, stir-fry it with low fire until the medicine is slightly yellow and the fragrance escapes (you can also stir-fry the medicine first, then spray a certain amount of vinegar, stir-fry and spray evenly), and then take it out and spread it evenly. Each kilogram of medicinal materials uses about 200 ml of vinegar. For example, Rhizoma Corydalis, Rhizoma Cyperi, Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae Viride, Rhizoma Sparganii and Rhizoma Curcumae are all fried with vinegar.
⑦ Salt frying: a method of mixing salt or brine with medicinal materials. Salty and cold, it can clear away heat and cool blood, soften and strengthen kidney, prevent corrosion, and correct odor and taste.
Operation method: stir-fry the salt in a pot with slow fire, and pour the medicine into people to stir-fry until the medicine becomes fat and yellow, such as stir-fry Achyranthes bidentata and Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. You can also use salt water. First, stir-fry the medicinal materials in a pot, spray salt water, stir-fry until dry, take them out and spread them in the air. For example, stir-fry Fructus Psoraleae, Cortex Phellodendri and Radix Dipsaci with salt water. Each kilogram of medicinal materials contains 50 grams of salt.
(8) stir-frying ginger juice: mixing the medicine with ginger juice. Ginger is pungent and warm, and has the functions of expelling cold, invigorating stomach, stopping vomiting and detoxifying.
Operation method: Mash ginger, juice it, mix it with medicinal materials, stew it to make ginger juice completely absorbed, put it in a pot and fry it with slow fire until it is yellowish or yellowish, and take it out when scorched spots appear, such as fried Coptidis Rhizoma, Magnolia Officinalis, Bamboo shavings, Pinellia ternata, etc. To enhance the warming and antiemetic effects of drugs.
The dosage of ginger juice varies slightly from place to place, and it is generally 100-250 ml per kilogram of medicinal materials.
(9) frying: the method of frying medicinal materials in oil or mixing them with oil, such as sesame oil, sheep fat oil, etc., so that the medicinal materials are crisp and fragile, and the effective components are easy to fry, which can detoxify.
Operation method: Boil the oil in the pot until it is slightly boiling, add the medicinal materials, stir fry at any time, fry until crisp and yellow, and take it out to cool. Such as roasted tiger bones (crispy), roasted epimedium with sheep fat oil (fried, which can enhance the effect of tonifying kidney and strengthening yang), and fried nux vomica (detoxified, the oil should be discarded and inedible).
The amount of oil depends on the amount of fried herbs.
(10) Stir-fried turtle blood: Using fresh turtle to stir-fry medicinal materials can enhance the efficacy of reducing deficiency-heat and stopping malaria. Operation method: decapitate the live soft-shelled turtle to get blood, dilute it with clear water and yellow wine, mix it with the medicine, moisten it slightly, stir-fry it with slow fire until it is slightly burnt, and then take it out and spread it in the air. Such as turtle blood mixed with fried Bupleurum and Artemisia annua.
2. Simmer: wrap the medicinal materials with wet paper and dough in charcoal fire, bake them in a baking room, or fry them in a pot to remove the oil and volatile substances that are not conducive to treatment and achieve the purpose of easing the medicinal properties. The simmering method can be divided into the following types:
(1) Noodles-wrapped stew: add water to the flour to form a ball, wrap the medicinal materials, and put them in a pot and simmer with hot sand, or directly put them in charcoal fire, simmer until the noodles are yellow and black, and peel them for later use. Such as stewed terminalia chebula and nutmeg.
(2) Stewing: wrap the medicine in three or more layers of coarse straw paper, soak it in water, and put it in a pot and simmer it with hot sand or charcoal fire until it turns brown, such as simmering sweet and ginger.
(3) Paper simmering: cut the medicinal materials into pieces, spread them on the papyrus, spread the pieces on the paper, spread the medicines on the paper, make them pile up layer by layer, and bake them with fire to make some volatile components and oils penetrate into the papyrus by heating, so as to reduce the strong and side effects, such as stewed nutmeg and stewed radix aucklandiae.
⑤ Direct simmering: The medicine is directly buried in a flameless ash fire, so that the medicine bubbles or nearly cracks when heated, and the texture is crisp, such as tooth soap.
The above-mentioned decocting methods often lead to drug coking or uneven decocting, which is not suitable for the needs of the current formula. At present, drugs fried in pan or bran can also absorb oil and volatile substances and reduce side effects, such as stewed radix aucklandiae, radix puerariae and nutmeg.
3. Canning (scalding): stir-frying the medicine with strong fire, or mixing it with sand, clam powder, talcum powder and Pollen Typhae. Canning and frying are just different in temperature, and the essence is the same. Canning, scalding with strong fire and frying with slow fire. After blanching, the medicine is crisp and fragile, and the effective components are easy to decoct, thus improving the curative effect.
(1) canning: stir-fry the medicinal materials with strong fire and take them out quickly, so that the surface is black and burst open, and the internal components are not lost. For example, it is processed with dried ginger to warm the middle warmer, dispel cold, stop bleeding, stop diarrhea and stay.
⑵ Sand scalding: Select coarse sand with uniform and clean particles, put it in a pot and heat it to above 100℃, then add the medicinal materials and stir fry them, so that the medicinal materials are heated evenly, the surface gradually bulges, the internal tissues become brittle from hard to brown, and then pour them into an iron sieve to screen out the sand particles. If vinegar quenching is needed, it can be poured into vinegar while it is hot, taken out and dried, such as processed pangolin scales, prickly skin, nux vomica, chicken's gizzard-membrane, etc.
⑶ Scalding of clam powder: When heated, clam powder transfers heat more slowly than sand, and scalding medicine is not easy to burn. Animal glue is often scalded with clam powder, which makes the inside and outside heated evenly, tough and brittle. The operation method is the same as sand ironing, such as donkey-hide gelatin beads (fried with clam powder) and deer glue. In addition, some people fry with talcum powder and cattail pollen, and the ironing method is the same as above.
4. Calcination: the method of processing drugs with strong fire makes the medicinal materials crisp, the performance changes, the effective components are easy to fry, and the medicinal materials are easy to process and crush. Calcination can be divided into open-air calcination and dark calcination:
(1) Open-air calcination: the medicinal materials are calcined directly on fire or in a pot. Calcined by direct fire until the medicinal materials are red, such as magnetite, native copper, lapis lazuli, oyster, concha Haliotidis, etc. Or put the medicine into a crucible for calcination, so as to melt it and generate bubbles, and take it out after it is completely cooled, such as calcined alum as dried alum and calcined borax (Lunatone) as calcined Lunatone. There are also medicinal materials that are directly calcined with fire, quickly put into vinegar or medicine juice pot to make them brittle, and can be repeatedly calcined and quenched, such as calcined magnetite, calcined pyrite, and simmered calamine.
⑵ Dark roasting: (stew roasting or dry distillation): put the medicinal materials into the pot, cover the pot, seal it with yellow mud, press a heavy object on it, put a few grains of rice on the pot, roast it with slow fire until the rice turns yellow, and take out the medicinal materials after the ceasefire. This method is suitable for calcining charcoal, such as blood charcoal, wormwood charcoal, aged brown charcoal and lotus leaf charcoal.
Various calcination methods should master the operation flow and calcination time according to specific varieties. For example, if the mineral is red and transparent, the calcination time should be long. As long as the shell is calcined to the degree of redness, the time should be short and it should not be calcined too thoroughly. If calcined excessively, they will lose their efficacy.
5. Refining: put the medicinal materials into a crucible and heat them for refining, so as to purify or refine them. The main contents are as follows: 1. Chemical refining: mixing several drugs and refining them by heating, sublimation or combining them into another substance, such as an alchemist; One is to purify the drug so that it can be preserved for a long time, such as refining mirabilite, dehydration, and making pure sodium sulfate from impurities.
6. Roasting, baking and baking: All three methods are to heat the raw materials or semi-finished products to dry the drugs, which is convenient for storage and crushing the preparations. Baking is generally carried out in the curing barn, or the medicinal materials are dried by the waste heat of the stove. In order not to affect the quality of medicinal materials, the temperature must be controlled well. Generally, the drying temperature does not exceed 80℃, and the baking time is within half an hour, including oil and aromatic crude drugs, and the temperature is controlled below 50℃.
7. Liao: It is a method of burning the external thorns, hair and fibrous roots of drugs with charcoal fire, such as Golden Haired Rhizoma Cimicifugae, Rhizoma Cimicifugae and prickly skin. Pilose antler is generally burned and then scraped off with a sharp knife.
Water-fire system
All the methods of heating drugs with water and fire, from raw to hot, from hard to soft, from hard to brittle, in order to change the performance, reduce the toxicity, enhance the curative effect, and at the same time play a corrective role, are collectively called water and fire method. This method includes steaming, boiling and cicada.
1. steaming: the method of heating the medicinal materials in a steamer or cage isolated from water can change the medicinal properties, enhance the curative effect, facilitate processing and slicing, and facilitate storage. Such as steamed rehmannia root, steamed rhubarb, etc.
2. Decocting: a method of boiling medicinal materials in water or liquid medicine to eliminate the toxicity, irritation or side effects of drugs, such as decocting Daphne genkwa with vinegar.
3. Cicada: The method of treating drugs with boiling water for a short time is helpful to remove non-medicinal parts and destroy the activity of enzymes, so that the effective components can be retained, such as almond and peach cicada, and their emulsin can be destroyed and the effective components can be retained.
Some drugs are not simply processed by the above methods. There are some special varieties that need the following methods:
1. Fermentation: adding water to the medicine, heating, and fermenting to grow mycelium under certain temperature and humidity conditions. Such as Massa Medicata Fermentata and Pinellia ternata, are made into small pieces, covered tightly with grass or sacks, fermented, taken out and dried to produce hyphae. Through fermentation, this method can enhance the efficacy of strengthening spleen and stomach, helping digestion and dispelling cold. Other fermented soybeans are also made by fermentation.
2. Germination: soak canned rice, summer, black beans, etc. Let them sprout at a certain temperature. The purpose of germination is mainly to increase the efficacy of drugs in invigorating spleen and stomach, helping digestion and relieving exterior syndrome. Such as corn sprouts, malt, bean rolls, etc.
3. Frosting: the oily medicine is shelled and ground. Wrapped with several layers of toilet paper gauze, squeezed to remove oil, repeated several times until there is no oil, and the obtained powder is called "paste". The purpose of frost making is to reduce toxicity and alleviate medicinal properties, such as croton cream, honey cream, chestnut cream and perilla cream. In addition, the residual horn of antler after boiling glue is also called antler cream; Remove pulp from watermelon, add mirabilite, seal in yellow sand jar, and place in a cool and ventilated place. In a few days, a layer of white frosty crystals will precipitate outside the jar, which will be called watermelon frost if it is swept down.
4, dyeing clothes: the appearance of the drug, mixing another powder, strengthening the role of the main drug. For example, cinnabar mixed with Poria cocos, Poria cocos, cinnabar mixed with wicks and indigo mixed with wicks are called Zhu Fuling, Zhu Fuling, Zhu Wick and Dai Wick.
5. koji-making: mixing the medicinal materials according to the prescription, processing or mixing them separately, grinding them into powder, mixing them with flour as adhesive, making them into square pieces, and then fermenting to make koji, such as medicated leaven, Cai Youqu, Fanzhi koji, Pinellia koji and so on.
From the above processing methods, the curative effect of drugs depends not only on the drugs themselves, but also on the quality of processing. As Chen Jiamo said in the Ming Dynasty, "drugs are expensive in moderation, and their efficacy is hard to find. If there are too many, the smell will be gone." In other words, the processing must be moderate.