Traditional Chinese Drugs

Long practice and rich experience prove that traditional Chinese drugs are highly effective and that most of them have no toxicity and little or no side effects. They are also good for recuperation and building up resistance to disease.

Traditional drugs continue to be widely used in China though western drugs were  brought in hundreds of years ago. In the 50 years and more since the founding of the People's Republic, the varieties of traditional drugs in clinical practice have increased from 2,000 to about 5,800.

Over 90 per cent of them are plants, including the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, barks or peels, while the rest are animal substances containing bodies, internal organs or shells, and minerals which are metals or ores. The country's more than 800 traditional Chinese pharmaceutical factories are now turning out over 2,000 kinds of herbal medicinal preparations of definite, standard composition.

Theoretically, traditional Chinese drugs have four properties, i.e. cold, hot, warm and cool, which were classified according to their therapeutic effects, and five tastes, namely, pungent,  sweet, sour, bitter and salty.

The tastes of drugs are different as are their properties. Besides, traditional Chinese drugs also have different functions -- ascending and descending, floating and sinking, which refer to the directions of the action of drugs. The ascending and floating drugs have an upward and outward effect and are used for activating vitality, inducing sweat and dispelling cold; while the descending and sinking drugs, having a downward and inward effect, are used for tranquilizing, causing contraction, relieving cough and so on.

Traditional drugs are also unique in the methods of processing. They are handled and processed in different ways -- including steaming, roasting, baking, annealing rinsing, soaking and boiling -- with different results.

Take rhubarb for example, steaming it with wine may alleviate its purgative function and enhance its other functions. Charcoalized rhubarb can be used in case of internal bleeding. Such complicated handling and processing also help to reduce or eliminate toxicity and side effects of many traditional drugs

The combination of various ingredients in a prescription is very important in each compound prescription. A prescription can have two or three or as many as over a dozen ingredients. Prescriptions of different compositions and doses are used to treat different cases. For example，ephedra(ma huang) can treat common colds if it is mixed with cinnamon stem(gui zhi)，and can cure asthma if it is prepared with bitter almond(ku xing ren) and gypsum(shi gao)．Now many Chinese drugs can be obtained in the form of tablets，capsules and injections instead of in bulk for home brewing as in the past．