Processing process of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
flow chart
1. Definition of Chinese medicine decoction pieces
Under the guidance of the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese herbal medicine decoction pieces are made into finished products of certain specifications through three major processes: net selection, cutting and processing.
Second, the production process of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
The main process of the production of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces is simply divided into three major processes: net making, cutting and burning.
1. Net system
The net selection of medicinal materials is called "net medicinal materials". "Pure medicinal materials" means that the medicinal materials are selected and selected, winnowed, water selected, screened, sheared, scraped, rejected, brushed, skewered and soaked to achieve the quality standards of specified clarity.
2. Cutting
The cutting of pure herbs can be fresh or dry, all of which need to be softened by water. Softening medicinal materials requires "less soaking and more moisturizing" and "medicine permeability" to prevent the loss of water-soluble medicinal ingredients in medicinal materials. The cutting methods include cutting, cutting, planing, cymbal, splitting, pounding, texturing, etc. The cutting requires a certain thickness and particle size, and the cut pieces are dried to facilitate preservation and ensure quality.
3. Cannon burning
Burning refers to the process of taking net medicinal materials and tablets after purification or cutting, and using the prescribed processing process to make drugs according to the processing rules formulated by the theory of traditional Chinese medicine. The methods of cannon burning are: heat treatment: such as frying, ironing, calcining, charcoal, steaming, boiling, simmering, etc. Add specific auxiliary materials and then heat treated: wine, vinegar, salt, ginger ale, honey, medicinal juice, etc. In addition, there are also frost-making, water flying and other processes.
3. Process, equipment and quality control of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
Chinese herbal medicines must be processed in accordance with the law in order to meet the quality standards of clinical use of traditional Chinese medicine, and can meet the requirements of the quality of medication and preparation of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions and proprietary Chinese medicine preparations. Generally, the production goes through the process links of material preparation, purification, infiltration, cutting, drying, and cannon burning, and finally makes the decoction pieces of various specifications meet the specified quality standards of purity, thickness, safety and effectiveness. In recent years, great progress has been made in the processing of traditional Chinese medicine in mainland China, and Table 1-1 intuitively compares the production, selection of equipment and quality control of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces.
| Table 1-1 Production, equipment and quality control of Chinese herbal decoction pieces | ||||
| Procedure | Major equipment | Process monitoring points | Monitor the main content | |
| Prepare raw materials | Original medicinal herbs | Origin source, harvest season, appearance and intrinsic composition requirements | ||
| True, false, superior, inferior, microscopic, physical and chemical detection | ||||
| Net system | Net selection | Winnowing, screening, selection, magnetic separation and other equipment (instead of traditional picking, shearing, scraping, brushing, wiping, etc.) ） | Chinese herbal medicines | Removes impurities, foreign substances, non-medicinal parts |
| cleaning | Washing machine or (stainless steel) sink | elutriation | Require water quality, flowing water, and cleanliness (try to avoid loss of intrinsic components) | |
| 漂洗 | Require the number of water changes, time, and inspection of properties (try to avoid the loss of intrinsic components) | |||
| Infiltration | Rotary full wetting tank, vacuum pressure damping machine, etc. (instead of pool infiltration) | Infiltration | Grasp water consumption, hardness, uniformity, and time. It is required that the medicine is permeable, the softness and hardness are moderate, the splitting is not dry, and the cutting is not fragmented | |
| Cut | Microtome with a variety of functions | Shredding, slicing, slicing, etc | Length, size, sheet type, thickness, etc | |
| dry | Circulating oven, tunnel steam drying oven, vacuum drying oven, microwave drying oven, etc | Dry containers | Temperature, pressure, intensity, time | |
| Processing | steam | Stainless steel steamer, sandwich heating tank, etc | Heat, steam, soften | The amount, time, steam pressure, and strength of water or other auxiliary materials added |
| boil | Bring to a boil | Add water or other excipients, time, strength | ||
| stew | Heat to a boiling state over a slight heat | Add water or other excipients, time, strength | ||
| 燀 | Repeated hot soaking | Immersion time, appearance, impurities, strength | ||
| Gunblaze | fry | Automatic temperature control fuel frying machine, gas frying machine, electric frying machine | Stir-fry | Firepower, temperature, time, intensity |
| Add auxiliary materials (bran, sand, soil, etc.) and stir-fry | Quantity, temperature, time, and strength of excipients | |||
| Stir-fry charcoal | Color, temperature, time, and strength of the inside and outside of the herb | |||
| Liquor | Simmer the medicine machine | Add wine | Wine quality, amount of wine, heating time, strength | |
| Vinegar | 、 | Add vinegar | Vinegar quality, amount of vinegar, heating time, strength | |
| Honey burned | Roasting machine | Honey | Honey treatment, refining quality, honey addition time, quantity, temperature, intensity | |
| Salt | Add salt | Salt quality, brine concentration, dosage, heating time, intensity | ||
| Ginger burn | Ginger Juice | Ginger quality, amount of ginger juice, heating time, strength | ||
| Frosting | Frosting | Oil content, loose powder | ||
| copy | Immersion | Immersion time, frequency, internal and external properties of medicinal materials | ||
| Water flying | ball mill | polishing | Check for foreign bodies and fineness | |
| ferment | Constant temperature incubator, fermenter | ferment | Temperature and humidity, amount of auxiliary materials, fermentation intensity, time | |
| sprout | 胚芽 | Temperature and humidity, germination rate, bud length | ||
| 煅 | Electrically heated controllable calciner | Ming-hwan | Time, intensity, and crystalline water | |
| 煅淬 | The amount of material and the degree of quenching | |||
| Puritanquin | Time, charring intensity | |||
| Tang | Tang | The amount of excipients, the temperature, and the degree of scalding | ||
| sterilization | Pieces | Specific variety performance, quantity, microbial limit | ||
| smash | High-efficiency grinding, ultra-low temperature grinder | Powder | Be careful to remove foreign matter and control moisture | |
| Sieving machine | Sieve mesh, screen, fineness |
Fourth, the general process flow of processing traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
1. Net production process
Flow chart of the net production process of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
2. Cutting production process
Flow chart of the production process of cutting traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
3. Stir-fry production process
Flow chart of the production process of stir-frying of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
4. Production process of frying of auxiliary materials
Flow chart of the production process of frying excipients of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
5. Burning production process
Flow chart of the production process of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
6. Burn production process
Flow chart of the production process of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
7. Steaming production process
Flow chart of the steaming production process of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
8. Crushing production process
Flow chart of the production process of crushing pieces of traditional Chinese medicine
9. Calcining production process
Flow chart of the production process of calcination of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
Source: China Food and Drug Information Network