Modern research progress of Chinese materia medica diaphoretic processing method / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Diaphoretic processing is one of the essential methods aiming to speed up the drying herbs and help the preservation of medicinal materials in the initial processing of Chinese materia medica. In addition, modern research showed that diaphoretic processing also affects the chemical components pharmacological activities and pharmacodynamic action of medicinal materials. During the diaphoretic processing, the internal temperature of medicinal materials rose, which increased the enzyme activity and improved the enzyme-catalyzed reaction, and then these lead to the change of chemical components of medicinal materials. With the diaphoretic processing continues, continually elevated internal temperature of medicinal materials started a series anti-heat stress reaction and generated some secondary metabolites, which considered as main effective components of medicinal materials. In this paper, the mechanism of diaphoretic processing was revealed by analysis the biological enzyme action and anti-heat stress reaction, in order to provide a theoretical basis for the application and extension of the diaphoretic processing.