What Chinese medicines need to be decocted first?

Although Chinese medicine is slower to take effect than Western medicine, it can effectively cure the root cause and is therefore more popular. Everyone should know that before taking Chinese medicine, it needs to be boiled with water. However, there are some things to pay attention to when decocting Chinese medicine. Some Chinese medicine can be decocted first while some need to be taken later, otherwise the efficacy will be much worse. Now let’s introduce in detail which Chinese medicines need to be decocted first.

Mineral medicines commonly used for decoction include iron compounds, calcium compounds, etc. Some medicines with aromatic smells need to be added later. The decocted medicines include heavy powders and starch-rich medicines, and seed-based medicines are granules. Melted medicines refer to donkey-hide gelatin, deer horn glue, turtle horn glue, turtle and deer glue, turtle shell glue, beijia glue, xiatian glue, and yellow gelatin. When taking them, they should be put into the same dose of decocted hot decoction, stirred and dissolved, and then taken.

Precautions for boiling Chinese medicine

1. Soak medicine. Put the Chinese medicine in a casserole and soak it for 30-50 minutes. The water should be three pounds, which is about three bowls. Stir the medicine thoroughly with a spoon while soaking so that the effect will be better.

2. Boil the medicine. When boiling the medicine for the first time, the heat is very important. First, put the soaked medicine on the stove (if it is an induction cooker, the effect is not very good), turn the fire to high heat, wait until it boils, then switch to low heat and boil it slowly. It takes 20-30 minutes. In the middle, use a spoon to measure to see if the medicine liquid reaches half of the spoon head. If it is half, it is fine. The medicine liquid poured out is half a bowl of the amount. It should not be too much, otherwise the patient will not be able to drink it.

3. When boiling for the second time, it is best to add two bowls of water, and boil it on high heat first, then on low heat for 20-40 minutes. The amount of liquid medicine poured out is half a bowl. Just mix the first and second times together.

Soaking before cooking

It is best to soak the medicine for 30 to 60 minutes before decocting it. It can be soaked for a little longer, but not too long. If the soaking time is too long, the cooking time can be shortened relatively. If you are in a hurry, you can skip this step.

The water for soaking should preferably be boiled water or tap water. The reason why boiled water is better is that tap water contains bleach, that is, a large amount of chlorine, which will affect the efficacy of the Chinese medicine after soaking. If neither of these two types of water is available, tap water or purified water that has been left for a while can also be used as a substitute. Of course, it would be best if there is natural well water or spring water with good water quality.

Amount of water for soaking and first frying

After soaking, you can start the first frying directly. If you skip the soaking step and go directly to the first frying, the amount of water added for the first frying should be the same as that for soaking, and after adding the water, wipe the bottom of the pot dry before putting it on the fire to boil.

The general common sense of decocting medicine is that the amount of water added should be 3-5 cm above the medicine surface. However, as you can imagine, if the size of the decocting vessel is different, then the amount of water in 3-5 cm will be very different. For the general amount of medicine, you can refer to the amount of water added: 600 ml - 750 ml, which is roughly equivalent to a bottle of normal-sized beverage bottle and a little more.