What should I do if I drink spoiled Chinese medicine?

Chinese medicine can regulate the body and also cure some diseases, which is very good. Nowadays, many people go to traditional Chinese medicine hospitals regularly to take their pulses and get medicine, because some diseases can be treated more effectively with half the effort in a certain season. Some people like to boil all the Chinese medicine for several days at once after taking it. However, it will go bad if left for a long time. What should you do if it goes bad after drinking it? Let's find out.

The sourness of Chinese medicine indicates that it has deteriorated. The deterioration of Chinese medicine not only reduces the therapeutic effect of the medicine, but also increases the presence of pathogenic bacteria and toxin-producing bacteria. It can also produce various toxic and harmful substances, causing acute poisoning or chronic poisoning in consumers. Traditional Chinese medicine that turns sour not only fails to cure diseases, but may also cause illness. Therefore, traditional Chinese medicine should not be consumed if it turns sour.

1. Causes of deterioration and sourness

Because traditional Chinese medicine contains starch, sugar, protein, vitamins, volatile oils, amino acids, various enzymes, trace elements and other ingredients, most of these ingredients are dissolved in the soup during decocting. The general method of administration is to take half of the medicine while it is still warm, and then take the other half 4 to 6 hours later. If taken overnight or stored for too long, not only will the efficacy of the medicine be reduced, but the effects of air, temperature, time, bacterial contamination and other factors will cause the enzyme decomposition in the medicine to become less effective, bacteria to multiply and breed, and starch, sugar nutrients and other components to ferment and hydrolyze, causing the medicine to become rancid and deteriorate, which is harmful to human health after taking it.

2. We should also note that Chinese medicine should not be taken with sugar

Some people add sugar to Chinese medicine when taking it because the decoction is bitter and difficult to swallow. In this regard, relevant experts point out that some Chinese medicines are not suitable for taking after adding sugar. Adding sugar to the medicine reduces the bitterness while also reducing the efficacy. Traditional Chinese medicine has four properties: cold, hot, warm, and cool, and five flavors: pungent, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Among them, pungent can disperse, sweet can slow down, sour can contract, bitter can astringe, and salty can enter the kidney. Chinese medicines with different tastes have different medicinal effects. Adding sugar to some Chinese medicines will change the medicinal properties of the bitter decoctions and affect their efficacy.

Some bitter medicines can stimulate the peripheral nerves and reflexively secrete digestive juices such as saliva and gastric juice to help digestion and promote appetite. If you put a lot of sugar in the medicine, it will completely cover up the bitter taste and lose its stomachic effect.

In addition, the chemical composition of traditional Chinese medicine is generally complex. Sugar, especially brown sugar, contains more iron, calcium and other elements. Once combined with proteins, tannins and other components in traditional Chinese medicine, it will cause a chemical reaction, causing some effective ingredients in the medicine to coagulate and denature, which also affects the efficacy of the medicine to a certain extent.