Effects of processing adjuvants on traditional Chinese herbs

Abstract

Processing of Chinese medicines is a pharmaceutical technique that transforms medicinal raw materials into decoction pieces for use in different therapies. Various adjuvants, such as vinegar, wine, honey, and brine, are used in the processing to enhance the efficacy and reduce the toxicity of crude drugs. Proper processing is essential to ensure the quality and safety of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). Therefore, sound knowledge of processing principles is crucial to the standardized use of these processing adjuvants and to facilitate the production and clinical use of decoction pieces. Many scientific reports have indicated the synergistic effects of processing mechanisms on the chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmacokinetics of the active ingredients in TCMs. Under certain conditions, adjuvants change the content of active or toxic components in drugs by chemical or physical transformation, increase or decrease drug dissolution, exert their own pharmacological effects, or alter drug pharmacokinetics. This review summarizes various processing methods adopted in the last two decades, and highlights current approaches to identify the effects of processing parameters on TCMs.

Pharmacokinetic comparison of nine bioactive components in rat plasma following oral administration of raw and wine‐processed Ligustri Lucidi Fructus by ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry

“…As we all known, wine is proved to dissolve most of the water‐soluble ingredients or insoluble materials due to its good permeability, which promotes the infiltration into the interior of the plant tissue [28]. In addition, reaserchers studied that wine could promote the components of herbs more easily to enter into the circulation [29]. Meanwhile, the weakly acidic environment caused by wine might induce or accelerate other chemical reactions, inducing composition and concentration changes in the medical herbs.…”

A pre-trial evaluation of blinding for a Chinese herbal medicine trial

“…There are several limitations to this study that need to be acknowledged. Unlike pharmaceutical substances, CHM have special macroscopic, and sensory features including appearance, colour, odour and taste based on the origin of the constituents [ 47 ]. Hence, one major challenge was to develop a truly inert material with no, minimal or specific physiological effects and yet be identical to the characteristics of a herbal substance.…”

Microbial community succession and toxic alkaloids change during fermentation of Huafeng Dan Yaomu

“…Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) contains many substances, both active and toxic, the toxic components can cause serious adverse events or even fatal poisoning (Liu et al ). Processing of raw herbal materials is widely performed before otherwise toxic TCM are administered to patients, which increases or decreases the levels of various components in medicinal herbs (Zhao et al ; Chen et al ). Fermentation is one of the ways adopted to process raw materials of TCM, such as Massa Medicata Fermentata (Xu et al ; Liu et al ) and Pinelliae Rhizoma Fermentata (Guo et al ).…”