Can Chinese medicine be boiled three times?

When we go to a traditional Chinese medicine hospital to see a Chinese medicine doctor, after giving the medicine powder to the patient, the doctor will carefully explain to the patient the whole process of boiling the Chinese medicinal materials. If the patient doesn't understand it once, he will explain it again and again... without any complaints. In fact, doctors often do so, simply because symptomatic treatment of Chinese medicine prescriptions is important, and how to maximize the effectiveness of the medicine is more critical. Next, let’s take a detailed look at the decocting methods of Chinese medicinal materials.

Chinese medicinal materials are mainly composed of three categories: plants, animals and minerals. Plants include flowers, stems, leaves and fruits, and animals include their viscera, skin, bones and organs. Because green plants account for a large proportion of the ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine, people are accustomed to calling traditional Chinese medicine Chinese herbal medicine.

After we obtain Chinese medicinal materials, the first thing we need to do is to choose the equipment for making medicine. Generally speaking, the metal woks and aluminum pots in our homes cannot be used to boil medicine. The appropriate choice should be a stone pot, because the stone pot is not easily oxidized, and it is not easy to cause any chemical changes when boiling with Chinese medicine. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, most people have used stone pots to boil Chinese medicine.

Second, the soaking of Chinese medicinal materials. Before boiling Chinese medicine, it should generally be soaked in cold water for 20 to 30 minutes. Some patients clean Chinese herbal medicines like washing dishes. This practice is incorrect. Chinese herbal medicines generally do not need to be cleaned. Cleaning up Chinese herbal medicines will lead to the outflow of the reasonable ingredients of therapeutic drugs.

Third, boil Chinese medicine. This is a more critical stage. Generally speaking, if a dose of Chinese medicine is boiled only once, the medicinal effect of the medicine cannot be fully brought out, so it is best to boil it twice. However, for some nourishing and health-preserving Chinese medicinal materials or Chinese herbal medicines with relatively reliable materials, they can be boiled for the third time. After all three medicines are cooked, you should pour the three Chinese medicinal materials into the pot and mix them together, then boil for five minutes, filter them out, and take them in three times. Only by doing this can we ensure that the medicine is evenly effective when taken.

Through the above series of discussions, we have deeply understood that from the selection of decocting equipment to soaking, then to boiling the medicine, and finally to taking it, each link is closely related to the efficacy of the therapeutic medicine and is extremely important. If we do it in this way, we will be able to boil the Chinese medicinal materials well and bring out the best of their medicinal properties.