Modern medicine is developing at a rapid speed, but our country’s traditional Chinese medicine culture is not idle either. More and more people are beginning to pay attention to health preservation in their lives. Combining traditional Chinese medicine to regulate the body has become a daily habit for many people.
However, after diagnosis, a large number of traditional Chinese medicine doctors will directly issue prescriptions and let the patients go to the pharmacy to get the medicine. However, when getting the medicine, many people will also "step into the trap": some unscrupulous merchants will pass off substandard products, or even Using fake traditional Chinese medicine to deceive consumers is a trivial matter, but the most important thing is that your health will be delayed.
How big is the difference between inferior Chinese medicine and high-quality Chinese medicine?
Some friends may not take it seriously: the quality is worse, but they are all the same medicinal materials anyway.
In fact, this is not the case. Traditional Chinese medicine is not the vegetables in the wet market. Good quality and poor quality have the same taste and nutrition. The processing of traditional Chinese medicine pays attention to multiple steps such as drying, boiling, steaming, and simmering. By extracting the medicinal effects from the medicinal materials and integrating them into the medicinal soup, it can achieve the effect of treating diseases.
It can be seen from this that the extraction rate of active ingredients from medicinal materials is relatively low. If you buy inferior traditional Chinese medicine, the amount of active ingredients analyzed will be lower, and the effect on regulating diseases or abnormal symptoms will be worse. It is us who will be harmed. own health.
Not only that, People's Daily once conducted a statistical survey on the traditional Chinese medicine market. The results found that some unscrupulous merchants would use fuel fumigation, use of additives, etc. to pass off substandard medicinal materials such as safflower , schisandra chinensis, agarwood, etc. These Eating dyes and additives into the stomach not only fails to maintain health, but also causes damage to physical health.
Therefore, learning to distinguish true from false and choosing high-quality traditional Chinese medicine is also a required course for health enthusiasts. There is actually a very simple way to distinguish the good and bad traditional Chinese medicine.
Just a bowl of water will teach you how to identify 5 common Chinese medicines
As mentioned above, the processing of Chinese medicines is inseparable from boiling, steaming, simmering and other steps, and these steps all require water. After the ingredients of the medicinal materials are precipitated in the water, The changes that occur, using this as a reference, make it easy to tell whether most medicines are genuine or fake.
Type 1: Donkey-hide gelatin
Donkey-hide gelatin is one of the common traditional Chinese medicines. It has the function of nourishing and nourishing blood. The raw material of donkey-hide gelatin is donkey skin. Animal skin is rich in collagen , which can make the tissue solidified and tough.
Therefore, after putting donkey-hide gelatin into water, if it spreads slowly, is brownish-red and clear, and has no residue, it is mostly true donkey-hide gelatin that is rich in collagen.
On the contrary, if it disperses after entering the water and there is a lot of black or red residue, be careful whether you have bought fake medicine.
The second type: Pangdahai
Pangdahai is mostly used for symptoms such as dry cough due to lung heat, headache and body heat. It can remove dryness, detoxify, relieve pain and relieve heat. Many people are happy to make tea from Pang Hai.
Friends who often eat Pangdahai will also find that Pandaidai usually expands to more than twice its original volume after contacting water. If the purchased Pangdahai does not swell when exposed to water, or the expanded volume is too small, the possibility of counterfeit medicine will be greater.
The third type: Ginseng
Ginseng is also a common traditional Chinese medicine. Ginseng contains a substance called ginsenoside . When soaked in water and fully exposed to it, it will react to form gas and foam.
To identify ginseng, you can soak a small piece of ginseng in water and observe whether there are bubbles. If there are bubbles, it is probably true, if not, it is probably false.
The fourth type: Musk
Musk is a relatively rare medicinal material. If you buy a fake one, I believe everyone will feel uncomfortable.
Similarly, you can also use a bowl of water to determine the authenticity of musk:
Genuine musk has a relatively strong aroma. Even if you put it into water, there will be no obvious dissolution and the aroma will still last;
But If it is fake musk, it will melt quickly if put in water and boiled, and the aroma will be lost.
The fifth type: bezoar
The essence of bezoar is gallstones made from cattle after air-drying. Because after the air-drying step, the inside is compact, and normal bezoar will not spread out in water. If it scatters or breaks in water, it is more likely to be fake bezoar.
Not only the above 5 kinds, many traditional Chinese medicines can be preliminarily judged as to their authenticity through the water test method , such as debris, peculiar smell, turbidity and other phenomena, which are mostly obvious signs of fake medicines and require more vigilance and attention.
In short, traditional Chinese medicine is worth trying and inheriting, and it is beneficial to our health. However, in the process of trying, distinguishing the authenticity of medicinal materials is the first step. Only genuine ingredients can bring real health, so please keep this in mind.
Reference:
[1] China Institute for the Control of Pharmaceutical and Biological Products, Guangdong Provincial Institute for Drug Control. Chinese Traditional Chinese Medicine Authenticity Identification Illustration. 2, Commonly Used Roots and Rhizome Medicinal Materials Volume [M]. Guangdong Science and Technology Press, 2017.
[2] China Institute for the Control of Pharmaceutical and Biological Products, Guangdong Provincial Institute for Drug Control. Chinese Traditional Chinese Medicine Authenticity Identification Illustration: (2) [J]. Guangdong Science and Technology Press, 2012.
[3]Wang Jiansheng. Application of water test method in the practice of traditional Chinese medicine identification[J]. Shizhen Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2009, 020(008):2056-2057.
