Can I eat Chinese medicine boiled overnight?

Since Chinese medicine has a very good conditioning effect, many chronic diseases can be slowly improved through it. However, it is very troublesome to boil Chinese medicine every day. Some people will boil it once and drink it for seven days, but I don’t know if this is correct. Can you eat Chinese medicine that has been boiled overnight? In fact, it is normal to cook the amount for three to seven days at a time. Just pay attention to the storage temperature, which should not be too high or too low.

1. Can Chinese medicine be taken overnight? No!

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.

Through the study of the solubility rate of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine decoctions, it was found that precipitation reactions would affect the active ingredients in the decoctions. Most Chinese medicines are made up of a combination of multiple Chinese medicinal herbs, and decoctions have also become a multi-ingredient system. In this system, various chemical reactions can occur between various chemical components to produce precipitates. Such as tannins and proteins, alkaloids, and glycosides. When biological alkali meets glycosides and organic acids, precipitation reaction will occur to generate new water-insoluble compounds that precipitate from the solution.

If the drug solution is left for a long time, it will create conditions for precipitation reaction to occur. The more sediment there is, the less effective ingredients there are. If we carefully observe the medicine solution that has been left for a long time, we can find that the upper layer becomes clearer and the lower layer is a precipitate, part of which is the product of the precipitation reaction. visible. Chinese herbal decoctions that have been left overnight should not be taken and it is better to finish them on the same day.

2. Do not take decocted Chinese medicine overnight in summer

If you are decocting Chinese medicine yourself, the time is also important. When decocting medicine by yourself, it is usually decocted twice a day, once in the morning and once again in the evening. However, you cannot decoct medicine in this way in summer. Instead, you should decoct it once, then add water and decoct it a second time and take it in the evening. The decocted medicine should be promptly stored in the refrigerator at low temperature and should be heated before drinking. It should be pointed out that it is generally not recommended to take Chinese herbal decoctions that you cook yourself overnight.

Experts particularly emphasize that some people put medicinal materials in the refrigerator to prolong their storage time, which is also inappropriate. Putting medicinal materials together with other foods not only makes it easy for various bacteria to invade the medicinal materials, but the humidity in the refrigerator is high, and the medicinal materials are also easily affected by moisture and mold. The air humidity is relatively high in summer, so it is best to place medicinal materials in a ventilated and dry place.

3. How many days can the decocted Chinese medicine be kept in the refrigerator?

There are certain requirements for the decoction and storage of Chinese medicine. Generally, we put the cooked sealed Chinese medicine bags in the refrigerator for storage, but the storage time should not exceed 7 days. If you decoct the unsealed Chinese medicine yourself, it is best not to exceed 3 days.

Although traditional Chinese medicine is a very good treatment, many people do not know how to decoct the medicine, so they decoct it for others. The most common way to decoct the medicine for others is to use vacuum packaging, and the second is to use the utensils provided by the patient. You must know that it is very easy for your own utensils to deteriorate.

To ensure the safety of drug use, the optimal storage temperature for sealed vacuum-packed Chinese herbal decoctions is 0~5℃, and the storage time is 7~14 days, but it is best not to exceed 7 days. On the one hand, after the medicine soup is cooked, it is often kept at room temperature for half a day to a day before being refrigerated at home, which will "accelerate" the deterioration of the medicine soup; on the other hand, if the decocted medicine soup contains animal Chinese medicines such as scorpions and centipedes, or Chinese medicines with high sugar content such as cooked rehmannia and astragalus, it will also affect the shelf life. If the medicine bag is found to be bulging or the medicine tastes different, or there are bubbles or other abnormal phenomena, it is spoiled and should not be taken.

Drinking Chinese medicine at the right time

The time to take Chinese medicine should be determined according to the patient's condition. If the disease is below the stomach (such as liver disease, kidney disease, etc.), it should generally be taken 30 to 60 minutes before meals; for the treatment of diseases above the stomach (such as heart, lungs, chest diaphragm, etc.), it is best to take it 15 to 30 minutes after meals. Whether before or after meals, there should be a gap of about half an hour between taking medicine and eating.

On the premise of following this basic principle, the medicinal properties of the medicine should also be considered. For example, heat-clearing and detoxifying drugs, laxatives, and tonic drugs should be taken on an empty stomach; stomachic drugs or decoctions that irritate the gastrointestinal tract are better taken after meals; anthelmintics should be taken overnight (once before bedtime, and again on an empty stomach the next morning); sedatives should be taken within 30 minutes to 1 hour before bedtime; and menstrual regulating drugs are generally taken before or during menstruation.

Contraindications of taking Chinese medicine

Avoid strong tea

Generally, do not drink strong tea when taking Chinese medicine, because tea contains tannic acid. Strong tea contains more tannic acid. When taken with Chinese medicine, it will affect the body's absorption of the active ingredients in the medicine and reduce its efficacy. Especially when taking "ejiao" and "tremella", avoid taking them with tea. Taking them at the same time will cause the tannic acid, bioalkali, etc. in the tea to precipitate, affecting the body's absorption. If you have the habit of drinking tea, you can drink a little green tea, and it is best to drink it 2 to 3 hours after taking the medicine.

Avoid radish

It is not advisable to eat raw radish when taking Chinese medicine (except for taking qi-regulating and phlegm-resolving medicines), because radish has the effects of helping food and breaking up qi. Especially when taking tonic Chinese medicines such as ginseng and astragalus, eating radish will weaken the tonic effects of ginseng, reduce the efficacy of the medicine and fail to achieve the therapeutic purpose.

Avoid eating raw or cold food

Raw and cold foods are mostly cold in nature and difficult to digest. Raw and cold foods can also easily irritate the gastrointestinal tract and affect the gastrointestinal absorption of drugs. Therefore, when taking Chinese medicine to treat "cold symptoms", such as medicines for warming the meridians and unblocking the collaterals, dispelling cold and dampness, or medicines for strengthening the spleen and warming the stomach, you must avoid eating raw and cold foods.