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Preparation of
liniment is as follows:
- Herbs should be cut into small pieces or grinded,
and put in the bottom of a jar or dark glass of about 3-4 liters.
- Pre-heat wine to 40o C and
pour it into the jar, filling up to 3/4 of its capacity.
- Finally, jar must be tightly sealed and stored
in a dry, dark and cool place for about one to three years.
Teachers of the past prepared big stocks of liniment in big
clay jars, sealed with wax, and buried them underground, in
shady areas.
Formulae for wounds should be grinded to powder before mixing
with wine. Application is as normal liniment or as a paste
of the herbs powder, covered with gauze.
Some
ingredients need special preliminary preparation, before adding
them into the liniment mixture, to.
- Diminish toxicity and side
effects;
- Modifying properties (flavor, nature and action);
- Reinforcing desired therapeutic effects;
- Dissipating disagreeable odors.
Most ingredients are sold already prepared. Nevertheless, some
specific cases not pre-treated in the pharmacy are:
Stir-baking
Herbs are put into a pot over a fire. According to extent of
heating, herbs can be stir-baked yellow in color, stir-baked
charred or stir-baked carbonized. Stir-baking can strengthen
the effect of stopping bleeding, for example.
Stir-baking with an auxiliary fluid is most used.
Common auxiliary fluids include wine, vinegar, oil and honey.
Herbs stir-baked with auxiliary fluids can strengthen effects,
reduce toxicity and remove abnormal flavor.
For example:
- Angelica pubescentis root has to be stir-baked
with wine to strengthen the effects of promoting circulation
of blood;
- Corydalis bulbosa tuber should be stir-baked with vinegar
to strengthen its analgesic effect by extracting its alkaloids;
- Strychnos nux-vomica seeds are to be fried
in oil to reduce their toxicity.
- Glycyrrhiza uralensis is stir-baked with honey to increases
its harmonizing effect.
Commiphora myrrha and Boswellia serrata should be crushed and
fried with the addition of vinegar. After cooling and drying,
re-crush and add to mixture.
Calcination
Herbs are directly or indirectly calcined over fire to make
them crispy for easily crushing or carbonized. Most of the solid
minerals, hard seeds or shells are directly calcined. Carbonized
human hair is made by means of calcination in a sealed refractory
vessel.
vinegar processing
This is a specific processing for Pyritum. Dip crushed Pyritum
in vinegar and let the acetic acid to dissolve available copper.
This procedure should be repeated several times (saving the leaked coper each time). Then add to
the mixture.
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