Chinese medicines are very similar, how to tell the difference?

As traditional Chinese medicine.

There are more than 10,000 kinds of Chinese medicines, including botanicals, animals, and minerals. There are more than 10,000 species of plants alone. Who could have known so much?

It sounds scary, but the good news is that not all of them are commonly used. There are about 600 of the most common, and 600 is not a small number. For Chinese herbal medicines, if you want to use them accurately, safely and effectively, you must not only know, but also be able to identify the quality of the medicinal materials, whether they are fake drugs, counterfeit drugs, etc.

How to identify a certain traditional Chinese medicine can be said in detail, but how to identify general traditional Chinese medicine can only be said from a few aspects, and then understood according to the specific characteristics and characteristics of different medicinal materials. Of course, these are based on the in-depth exploration, research and summary of traditional Chinese medicine by ancient sages and modern experts and scholars, which provide a basis for us to re-understand traditional Chinese medicine. I'll just take my personal understanding of it.

The identification of the traits of traditional Chinese medicine is usually divided into plant medicine, animal medicine, mineral medicine, etc. Among them, there are the most types of botanicals, which range from medicinal parts to whole grasses, roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, and so on. Whether it is a botanical, animal, or mineral medicine, to understand them, you must first look at the appearance, that is, at least from the appearance.

It is necessary to have knowledge of the glyphs and characteristics of commonly used Chinese medicines. Commonly used Chinese medicines are recorded in the pharmacopoeia, and the words of each Chinese medicine are highlighted in the pharmacopoeia.

Secondly, what is not recorded in the pharmacopoeia can also be found in reference books such as the "Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine" and "Provincial Standards for Traditional Chinese Medicine". The most serious thing is that some Chinese medicines have many original forms, and if it is difficult to judge, it is necessary to go to the actual place of origin to inspect the actual product. Despite the availability of advanced testing instruments, microscopy identification is widely used in the quality control of Chinese herbal medicines.

Of course, not all Chinese medicines can be identified with a microscope. What can be identified is that the cell or the substance contained in it is characteristic. Sometimes, when the quality of some medicinal materials and counterfeit and shoddy products cannot be identified from the appearance, microscopic identification is also a means.

For traditional Chinese medicine, it can identify both species and quality.

Because each medicinal material contains specific active ingredients and has certain physical and chemical characteristics, it is possible to judge whether traditional Chinese medicine contains such ingredients through physical and chemical identification, as well as a rough judgment of such ingredients. Sometimes, some ingredients in Chinese medicine are different from different origins or from different origins. As we all know, the quality or efficacy of some traditional Chinese medicines from different origins and bases are different, and the key is that they are also different.

At this time, you should learn about relevant books, such as mint and spearmint, the leaf color of mint is relatively light, and then the leaf veins are relatively light, the shape is pointed, and it is relatively thin, but the leaf color of spearmint is darker, and the leaves are round and thicker.

It should be distinguished according to the composition of traditional Chinese medicine, the proportion of traditional Chinese medicine, the color of traditional Chinese medicine, the consistency of traditional Chinese medicine, and the best effect of traditional Chinese medicine, so that you can distinguish a variety of traditional Chinese medicine.

It can be identified by taste, then it can also be identified by shape, it can be identified by taste, or it can be identified by color.

It can be identified by the taste of the Chinese medicine, or by touching the texture with your hands, and then it can also be distinguished by the color.

Preface: Because there are many types of Chinese medicines, there are many Chinese medicines with different names, but they look very similar, and it is difficult to distinguish them. Although these Chinese medicines look very similar, but the efficacy is very different, so if you are not a professional, it is best not to blindly choose to take some Chinese medicine, which may cause some adverse effects on the body.

For example, turmeric and turmeric, although the two look different, but the name is relatively similar, turmeric and turmeric are both medicines, can not be confused together, because turmeric can invigorate blood stasis, qi and relieve pain, and turmeric can relieve pain through menstruation, there is a certain difference in the efficacy of the two. Bupleurum and silver Bupleurum are also very different in appearance, many people may confuse these two Chinese medicines because of the name, Bupleurum can relieve the surface and reduce fever, soothe the liver and relieve depression and silver, Bupleurum can reduce deficiency fever, clear fever, and there is also a great difference in efficacy.

The difference between green wood incense and wood incense is also very large, if you want to distinguish these two herbs, it is best to choose to observe carefully, the wooden box can be used to relieve pain, adjust the stagnation. And Aoki incense can calm the liver and relieve pain, detoxify and reduce swelling. These drugs can not be confused, if in the time of the disease, because of the mistake of the drug, it will be easy to make the condition more serious, and it is not conducive to the health of the body.

Many people will also be confused between Wujiapi and Xiangjiapi, and Wujiapi can dispel rheumatism, nourish the liver and kidneys, strengthen muscles and bones, and activate blood and veins. Banana peel can reduce swelling and rheumatism, and the two traditional Chinese medicines can not be mixed, so there is a big difference in efficacy, if it is not taken properly, the impact on the body is very large, so it is necessary to consult a doctor in advance when taking traditional Chinese medicine.

You can smell the smell, you can also look at the appearance, the smell of each Chinese medicine is different, and the appearance is also different, so this practice can be clearly judged.

It can be distinguished by the taste of the Chinese medicine, the appearance of the Chinese medicine, the size of the Chinese medicine, and the medicinal effect of the Chinese medicine, so that it can be distinguished.

It can be distinguished by the taste, color, curative effect, size and appearance of traditional Chinese medicine.

Appearance quality. The appearance quality of Chinese herbal medicines is judged according to their appearance characteristics. The quality of Chinese herbal medicines depends on the clinical efficacy, and the efficacy is determined by the properties of the Chinese herbal medicines.

Therefore, the change of appearance properties of Chinese herbal medicines can indirectly determine the efficacy and evaluate the quality. In long-term practice, people have realized that the curative effect of Chinese herbal medicines is closely related to their shape, gas, color, taste and other attributes, and the traditional traits are still an important index to evaluate the quality of medicinal materials. For example, the bitter taste and yellow color of Coptis chinensis are related to the content of berberine; The tuber section of the tuber is yellow, and its content of ethylene is high. Peppermint volatile oil mainly contains glandular scales and glandular hairs with the leaf epidermis, and the pharmacopoeia stipulates that its leaf content shall not be less than 30%.

It is scientific for these descriptive traits to evaluate the quality of Chinese herbal medicines.

Intrinsic quality. The efficacy of Chinese herbal medicines is closely related to the content of pharmacodynamic substances. Therefore, the most scientific and reasonable quality index of Chinese herbal medicines should be the content of pharmacodynamic substances.

The 2005 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia included 551 kinds of medicinal materials and decoction pieces, the content limits of 217 kinds of effective substances of Chinese herbal medicines are stipulated, such as the content of berberine in Coptis chinensis shall not be less than, and the content of alcohol extract in domestic agarwood shall not be lower.

Comprehensive quality evaluation.

Due to the extremely complex chemical composition of Chinese herbal medicines, a blind Chinese medicine is a "big prescription", and its clinical efficacy is the result of the synergistic effect of multiple ingredients, and the content of a single ingredient or several components cannot explain the quality of Chinese herbal medicines. The state has stipulated that fingerprinting is one of the quality control standards in traditional Chinese medicine injections. With the development of science and technology, more and more of the pharmacodynamic components of Chinese herbal medicines have been understood, and the situation of "unclear curative effect and unknown ingredients" of Chinese herbal medicines will change.

1. Look: It is to look at the characteristics of leaves, stems, flowers and fruits of plants.

2. Smell: It is to crush the leaves of plants, peel off the fruits, cut the roots back, sniff with the nose, and identify similar varieties and some medicinal materials with special smells according to different smells.

3. Touch: It is to touch and twist with your hands to identify.

4. Taste: Taste the herbs with your mouth to identify the taste, and spit out after chewing.

What kind of Chinese herbs do you want to identify, different herbs have different ways to identify, and you can't generalize.

Your question is too broad, I can only say that Chinese herbal medicines pay attention to authenticity, that is to say, the place where medicinal materials are grown is regional.

There are many kinds of Chinese herbal medicines, and the medicinal parts are different, and the methods and priorities of observation in identification are not exactly the same. The key points to note in the identification of various parts of Chinese herbal medicines are as follows:

1. Roots (rhizomes):

Attention should be paid to its size and shape (such as the conical shape of Nansha cucumber, the cylindrical shape of radish, the spherical shape of Banxia, and the lump of rhubarb); surface characteristics (e.g. color, smoothness or roughness, presence of cracks, wrinkles, pores, etc.); texture (e.g., aconite is hard, Codonopsis is flexible, Astragalus is fibrous, fritillary powder); smell (e.g., angelica aroma, slightly sweet and bitter, bitter at first sight); Cross-section (this plays an important role in identification, such as monocot roots have obvious pith, dicot roots often have chrysanthemum patterns without pith, rhizomes often have oil spots, etc.).

2. Stems and trees:

Attention should be paid to its shape (usually cylindrical or square-cylindrical, such as perilla stems are twisted like chicken blood vines), surface (grassy stems are more wrinkled when dry, woody stems are more smooth like mulberry branches, and some nodes are swollen like elderberry orchids). In addition, observe the skin holes, bud marks and residual branches, etc.); Texture, section (grassy stems are hollow and easy, easy to break, fibrous, such as ephedra; The woody stems are mostly hard, with radial rays or growth rings, such as wood tong, etc.), smell (such as cinnamon spicy branches), etc.

3. Skins (including root bark and dry bark).

Its shape should be observed (e.g., cork plate, magnolia roll; Outer surface (e.g., smooth skin of Danpi, scaly skin of the bone, wrinkles, skin holes, etc.); inner epidermis (generally smoother and darker in color); cross-section (such as cinnamon granular, hibiscus hibiscus fibrous, cork lobes, eucommia silky, and flat); smell (bar, willow, bark, smell, bitter), etc.

Fourth, the whole grass:

It is the whole plant or the ground of the herbaceous plant is divided into medicine, and its roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds and other parts should be observed separately when identifying.

In the process of identifying Chinese herbal medicines, if in doubt, it is necessary to check and compare with ** specimens, or use other identification methods.

1. Vision. Look at the surface. Different types of medicinal materials will have different appearance characteristics due to the different parts of the medicine. For example, root medicinal materials are mostly cylindrical or spinning cone-shaped, and leather medicinal materials are mostly rolled up.

Look at the color. We can distinguish the variety, origin and quality of medicinal materials through the observation of the appearance and color of medicinal materials. For example, the color of Coptis chinensis should be yellow, the color of salvia should be red, and the color of Scrophularia should be black.

Look at the cross-section. The cross-section of many medicinal herbs has obvious characteristics. For example, the texture of the broken surface of Astragalus is like a "chrysanthemum heart", and Eucommia ulmoides is connected by gelatinous filaments when broken.

2. Hand touch. Hand touch. Feel the softness and hardness of the herb with your hands, for example, salt aconite is soft, while black aconite is hard.

Hand pinching. Feel the dryness, wetness, and adhesion of the herbs with your hands. For example: the fairy hand pinch is sticky.

Hand Gripping. Feel the weight of the herb with your hands, loose or dense. For example, the triangular weight of the vitex is solid, while the skulling of the bubble is light.

Sniff by rubbing your nose. Since some herbs have a weak smell, we can rub them before smelling them. For example: the fishy smell of Houttuynia cordata, the spicy fragrance, etc.

Medicinal materials can be identified not only by taste but also by "taste", which is divided into five flavors: pungent, sweet, sour, bitter and salty, such as the sour of hawthorn, the bitterness of Coptis chinensis, and the sweetness of licorice.

Some herbs can produce special phenomena when left in water or burned with fire. For example, the powder of bear bile in water will first rotate on the surface of the water and then sink in a yellow line without spreading. When musk is burned, it produces a rich aroma that leaves a white ash when burned.

6. The empirical identification of Chinese herbal medicines is a very practical and good method, but in order to correctly identify the authenticity of medicinal materials, it also requires the continuous accumulation of many years of experience and the continuous enrichment of Chinese medicine knowledge in order to accurately identify the medicine.

The above is the answer to your question, I hope it can help you, if you have other questions, please feel free to ask

In recent years, with the enhancement of everyone's awareness of health preservation, many people will choose Chinese herbal medicines to regulate themselves daily. However, due to the fact that Chinese herbal medicines are non-standard products, the same category may have different origins, and the medicinal ingredients of different origins are different, so it is difficult for the general public to distinguish the quality of medicinal materials.

So how can you tell the difference between good and bad herbs? Here are 4 common ways to do it.

1. Eye-viewing: Mainly observe the shape, size, color, thickness, and texture of the cross-section. Each medicinal material has certain appearance characteristics, such as the rhizome of Chuanxiong is an irregular nodular mass, and the cross section of Polygonum multiflorum is a "cloud brocade pattern"; Through the observation of the surface color of the medicinal materials, the origin and quality of the medicinal materials can be distinguished.

For example, American ginseng and raw dried ginseng are similar in appearance, so there is a phenomenon that raw dried ginseng is filled with American ginseng or mixed with American ginseng and sold. If you look closely, the density of American ginseng is larger, the texture is finer, the horizontal lines are more, the ginseng flavor is stronger, and the sweet aftertaste in the mouth is longer, while the slices of raw dried ginseng can be seen to have a looser texture, and there are more gaps in the middle of each slice; <>

2. Hand touch: The main experience is that the material of the medicine is light and heavy, firm, soft, old and tender, slippery, etc., and you can find the truth to a certain extent by carefully rubbing it. Medicinal materials such as seahorses and cordyceps sinensis may be increased by criminals by filling sand and adding iron wire.

3. Nose smell and mouth tasting: mainly experience the smell of medicinal materials, such as musk aroma and long-lasting; Angelica sinensis and Duhuo are similar in appearance, but Angelica is sweet and slightly bitter, and Duhuo is slightly bitter and spicy; Most of the "ejiao" made of pig skin, cowhide, etc. have small holes on the surface, and some have a smell of stinky gum, which will soften when the temperature is high; <>

4. Soaking: This method can distinguish counterfeit products made of starch or dyed, such as "deer antlers" forged by gluing deer skin with starch, which will naturally disperse once soaked.

Answer: Zhang Xiaodong.