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Chinese herbal medicine has a long history and many people are familiar with the traditional approach of simmering the herbs in in a clay pot, often for lengthy periods of time.
The smell would go throughout the house and was not always a pleasant smell.
Sometimes we would forget the time and the herbs would dry out and burn, then they became unusable. Well things have changed!
Modern technology has led to many changes in the way Chinese herbs are prepared today. While it is possible your practitioner still uses the traditional raw herbs, that you are required to cook, many herbalists are using modern, powdered, pre-decocted herbs.
With the worldwide growth of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) it has become viable for companies to produce high quality concentrates of the individual herbs and formula combinations which form the mainstay of the TCM herbalist's pharmacy.
The extraction process starts from the basic herb prepared according to traditional practices. This is important because the effects of a herb vary according to the way it is processed, for example most herbs in TCM are decocted which is very different to the common western herbal approach of alcohol tinctures, as compounds that are not soluble in water often are soluble in alcohol.
The Chinese would often pre-treat a herb - common treatments are frying in honey, soaking in ginger or lime, steaming or carbonising. Some of the pre-treatments were to eliminate toxic effects in the herb making them safe to use while others are to change the character of the therapeutic effect.
Each herb has been studied and an individual extraction processes have been developed for them ensuring that the extraction maintains the original flavour and properties of the source. These extracts have several advantages:
- Effectiveness - the source herb can be tested and monitored for quality and constancy of the levels of the key constituents. This ensures the therapeutic effectiveness is very consistent. It is not uncommon for the quality of available raw herbs to vary considerably.
- Accuracy of identification - It is sometimes difficult to ensure that a raw herbs has been identified correctly. Substitutions for difficult to get or expensive herbs are always a potential problem. The modern chemical spectrum analysis ensures that substitutes are not accepted.
- Avoids contamination problems - Herbs are processed without the addition of preservatives such as sulphur and are tested to ensure there are no problems with micro-organisms or heavy metals.
- Better researched - the provision of consistent product and involvement of industry has allowed for improved research on the uses and effectiveness of the herbs.
- Accurate dosage - the extracts accuracy of identification and consistency of composition allows for more accurate dosage of the patient
- Easier to use - the modern extract is often very concentrated and only a small amount needs to be carried and used. There is no preparation time required and no bad smell in the house from the boiling herbs.
Many of the most common formulas have been processed into commonly available pill form and in this case they are easy to use and usually taste better. However for the greatest effectiveness a herbalist will often prescribe a formula that is individualised to suit your particular health problems and this requires individual herbs and doses - unfortunatly despite all the advances they sometimes still taste really bad. |
