Methods of collecting traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials

The rational harvest of traditional Chinese medicine (season, time, method) is of great significance not only to ensure the quality and efficacy of medicinal materials, but also to protect and expand the source of medicine. Timely harvest, such as the law, the medicine is strong, the curative effect is high, on the contrary, the medicine is weak, the curative effect is poor. For example, the alkaloid content of ephedra is high from August to September, so it is suitable to be collected from August to September; the active components of quinones in Senna leaves that grow for about 90 days are the highest, which should be collected at this time; the quality of winter hemp collected when stems and flowers are not unearthed in winter is the best, followed by spring hemp unearthed from flower stems. The collection of traditional Chinese medicine should be collected when the content of active components is the highest, but at present, the law of the growth and decline of the effective components of traditional Chinese medicine is not clear, so according to the traditional experience, we can mainly from the factors affecting the character and quality of medicinal materials, the difficulty of harvesting, and the law of general growth and decline of nutrients in the process of animal and plant growth and development to guide the harvest of all kinds of medicinal materials.

The harvesting of medicinal materials must be carried out in different medicinal parts and when the content of active ingredients is the highest in order to obtain high yield and high quality, which are described below:

I. Roots and rhizomes are the storage organs of plants. When the aboveground parts begin to grow, they often consume the nutrients stored in the roots, so they should be harvested during the dormant period when plant growth stops, flowers and leaves fade, or before spring germination. If kudzu root is harvested in late autumn and winter, it is solid and powdery, and if the aboveground part grows in spring, it will become firewood without powder at all, it cannot be used as medicine. Wild plant medicine, after the aboveground part withered in winter, it is not easy to find, it is appropriate to the end of autumn, before the seedling withered. But there are exceptions, such as Bupleurum, Fangfeng, Codonopsis pilosula in spring, children's ginseng harvested in summer, yanhusuo, Pinellia ternata, summer should not be picked between Grain Rain and the Beginning of Summer. General mining method, when the land is wet after rain, dig with special tools, ginseng must protect the fibrous root. Root and rhizome medicinal materials often need to grow for more than one year before they can be used as medicine, usually 2-5 years. In cultivated medicinal materials, such as Radix Paeoniae Alba, it takes 3-4 years to grow, ginseng takes more than 5 years, and wild ones have longer growth years, such as wild Radix Astragali takes 2-3 years to dig.

2. Root bark and bark are mostly collected from Qingming Festival to the Summer Solstice, when the plant has more juice, cambium cells divide rapidly, the bark is easy to peel off, and the content of active components is high, such as Eucommia ulmoides and Magnolia officinalis. Root bark is harvested in winter, such as peony bark, ground bone bark. Some medicinal materials can be harvested when harvesting wood. The harvesting of root bark and bark is easy to damage plant growth, so attention should be paid to the harvesting method, and the bark should not be peeled in the whole circle, otherwise the transport system will be destroyed and the tree will die; the root bark is stripped after digging roots.

3. Leaves and whole grasses should be harvested when the plant is growing most vigorously, or when the bud is about to open, or when the flower is in full bloom but the fruit seed is not yet ripe, when the plant has fully grown and has the most vitality. If the leaves of ginseng are harvested in summer, the leaves are green and luxuriant. But mulberry leaves need to be harvested after frost, loquat leaves and ginkgo leaves need to be collected after falling to the ground. Most of the whole grass is harvested in the flowering stage, cutting off the branches from the upper part of the root, or pulling up the whole branch, some only with flower shoots, but others with tender seedlings, such as Artemisia annua should be collected at the beginning of spring.

4. The collection time of flowering medicinal materials must be paid special attention, because the florescence is generally short, if the collection time is not appropriate, it will have a great impact on the quality of medicinal materials. Usually collected when the flowers are in full bloom or budding, such as chrysanthemums and chrysanthemums; honeysuckle, Xinyi flowers are picked when they are budding; Sophora japonica and male cloves are picked in buds, which are generally not suitable to be harvested after the flowers are in full bloom, so the content of active ingredients decreases and affects the efficacy, and the petals are easy to fall off, and the quality becomes worse, such as safflower yellow at the beginning, then orange-red, and finally dark red, with orange-red harvest is better. The harvest of flowers should be carried out on a sunny morning when the dew is first dry, so as to facilitate rapid drying. For prickly plants such as safflower, should be picked when the dew is not dry, and the thorns on some back, plant branches and bracts can stab the fingers of the collector.

5. Fruits and seeds, except for a few medicinal materials such as green bark, green plum and Fructus Aurantii, must be harvested when they are not ripe, general fruits must be collected when they are fully grown or nearly ripe; succulent berries are easy to spoil and should be picked and processed in time; dried fruits and capsules must be harvested at the right time before ripening, and they will crack and scatter if they are ripe. Seed medicinal materials can not be harvested until they are fully mature, picked by hand or cut off with branches, dried and then collected.

6. The medicinal materials of bacteria, algae, spore sclerotia, algae and spores are harvested according to their respective characteristics, such as Poria cocos are harvested better after the Beginning of Autumn, when the fruiting body is just ripe, and if the spores are scattered too late.

7. The collection of animal medicinal materials varies with different kinds of medicinal materials. For example, insect drugs must master their hatching and development seasons, such as cicadas collected during the metamorphosis of black grasshopper cicadas in summer and autumn, mulberry snails must be collected 3 months ago, outdated eggs hatch adults, earthworms are caught when they start their activities from June to August, and centipedes are better caught before and after Ching Ming Festival Generally winged insects, mostly rest on plants when the dew is not dry in the early morning, not easy to take off, easy to catch, such as Mylabris, tabanus, etc.: animal medicine clam toad enters the hibernating period at the end of autumn, easy to catch, and Oviductus Ranae is more in the body; pilose antler is intercepted in the 40th and 60th day after Qingming Festival (May-July), outdated is keratinized rather than antler. Bear bile, bezoar, musk, horse treasure, toad venom are harvested after capture or slaughterhouse. In recent years, there are new collection methods such as artificial cultivation of bezoar, live musk deer to extract incense, live bear bile extraction and so on.

8. Mineral medicinal materials can be harvested at any time and can also be combined with mining. In the harvest of medicinal materials, attention should be paid to the protection of drug sources, planting and collection should be planned, how much to use and how much to collect, and not to store too much, resulting in backlog, resulting in deterioration and waste. When collecting, we should also pay attention to rationality, such as collecting large and keeping small, sparse and dense, reasonable round picking, mountain closure, introduction and breeding, etc., so that the resources of medicinal materials can be inexhaustible.