The choice of decoction apparatus: casserole is good, because the material of casserole is stable and does not react chemically with the drug ingredients, and its heat transfer is even and gentle, which is one of the reasons why it has been used since ancient times. In addition, you can also use enamel pots, stainless steel pots and glass fryer. But you can’t use iron or copper pots, mainly because they are chemically unstable and easily oxidized. In the decoction of the drug can react with the chemical composition of the Chinese medicine, such as with tannin components can generate iron tannate, so that the color of the liquid deepens. With flavonoids, it can produce a refractory polymer. With organic acids, salts can be formed. All these will affect the quality of the soup, directly related to the clinical efficacy of the soup. The amount of water added to the decoction is also very important, and the amount of water added directly affects the quality of the decoction. If less water is added, the decoction will be impermeable and the active ingredients will not be completely leached out. If more water is added, the decoction will be more liquid and inconvenient for the patient to take the medicine. Chinese herbs have different textures, and their water absorption varies greatly, so the amount of water added is generally controlled at 5-10 times. The same weight of the drug, loose texture of its volume is large, water absorption is naturally more. The solid texture of its volume is small, the water absorption is less. Therefore, for decocting flowers, leaves and whole herbs, the amount of water added should be more. When decocting mineral and shell drugs, the amount of water should be less. The traditional method of adding water is to put the drug into the pot and add water to exceed the surface of the drug by 3-5 cm for the first decoction and by 3 cm for the second decoction. This method of adding water is simple and easy to use and can be easily mastered. 1. Soaking before decoction: The drug must be soaked before decoction, because the herbs from plants are mostly dried products, soaking with water can soften the herbs and restore their natural state after tissue cell expansion, which makes it easy to leach the active ingredients when decocting. Generally, for drugs mainly from flowers, leaves and stems, the soaking time is 1-1.5 hours. The soaking time is 2-3 hours for drugs mainly from roots, seeds, rhizomes and fruits. 2, the number of decoction: decoction for several times than a long decoction effect. It has been proved that the decoction of soup twice can decoct about 80% of the ingredients, so the number of decoction is twice or three times is appropriate. 3, the temperature of the decoction: the temperature of the decoction, called “fire” in Chinese medicine, is generally known as “Wenhuo” or “Wuhuo”. The so-called Wenhuo, is a weak fire, the temperature rises slowly, the water evaporates slowly. The so-called martial fire is a strong fire, the temperature rises quickly, and the water evaporates quickly. If the decoction is too strong, the water evaporates quickly, which will affect the leaching of the active ingredients, and it is easy to paste the pot. On the contrary, if the fire is weak, the effect of decoction will be poor. Generally, before boiling with the fire, to the boil and then change to the fire, keep in a slightly boiling state, can slow down the evaporation of water, which is conducive to the decoction of active ingredients. 4, decoction time: mainly according to the nature of drugs and diseases, as well as the situation of drugs. Generally, it takes 20-30 minutes for the first decoction to boil and 30-40 minutes for the second decoction. For cold medicine, the first decoction takes 10-15 minutes, and the second decoction takes 15-20 minutes. For tonic drugs, the first decoction takes 30-40 minutes, and the second decoction takes 40-50 minutes. 5. The amount of liquid to be taken: generally refers to the amount of liquid after two decoctions of a dose of medicine. For adults, take 400-600ml, divided into two doses per day. For children, take 200-300 ml, divided into two to three doses daily. 6.How to take medicine: Generally, a dose of medicine is decocted twice and then combined and taken in two doses. Children can take it in 2-3 times. Treatment of colds, fever, enteritis, diarrhea medicine, can also be used in a frequent way, that is, once every 4 hours, each time to take 30-40 ml, the disease is cured, and then changed to 2-3 times a day, children to a small number of times is good. 7. Decoction of special medicine: The doctor will prescribe the medicine with footnotes in the prescription according to the patient’s condition and the nature of the medicine. (1) First decoction: Generally, some minerals, shells and horny nails are not easy to be decocted because of their hard texture and active ingredients, so they should be decocted for 30-40 minutes before mixing with other drugs. The common ones are raw gypsum, raw keel, mother of pearl, raw ochre, etc. Another toxic drug first decoction, long decoction can achieve the purpose of reducing or removing toxicity. For example, aconite can be decomposed into aconitine, and its toxicity is only 1/2000 of the original, such as aconite decoction can not only reduce toxicity but also increase the cardiac effect. (2) after the drug: generally aromatic smell containing volatile oil or not easy to long decoction of drugs, to be put into the pot 10-15 minutes before the drug decoction. The common ones are Huo Xiang, Hooked Vine, Rhubarb, etc. The decoction time is more than 20 minutes and the antihypertensive component is easily destroyed. Rhubarb, which has a laxative effect on heat, is rhubarb glucoside, but it is unstable to heat and will be decomposed by prolonged heating. The laxative effect of rhubarb glucoside is stronger than that of glucoside, so it is not easy to decoct for a long time, and the method is mostly used afterwards. (3) package decoction: generally seeds and other pollen drugs, gauze bags into the group of drugs decoction. The common ones are psyllium, spirulina and so on. If the psyllium is easy to stick to the pot paste, scorched. Therefore, it needs to be wrapped and decocted. The decoction of the flower can avoid irritation of the throat by mixing with the soup. (4) Dissolve the medicine: use hot liquid to dissolve the medicine and then take it. Common drugs are xuanming powder, mannitol. (5) Melting; mainly some gums, melted with hot liquid and then taken. If mixed decoction will make the liquid viscous, affecting the leaching of other ingredients, gum drugs also have a certain loss, so the melting method of taking. The common ones are raw gum, deer horn gum and turtle board gum. Separate decoction, some valuable drugs should be decocted separately, and then the liquid into the medicine to take together. The common ones are ginseng, American ginseng, deer antler, etc. (7) punching, some valuable drugs fine powder can not be decocted with the group of drugs, more use punching method of taking, that is, the powder dissolved in the liquid medicine to take. This is conducive to the role of the drug can also save herbs. The common ones are Panax ginseng noodles, antelope horn noodles, niuhuang noodles, etc.