Guest guest Posted May 7, 2001 Report Share Posted May 7, 2001 Now I know that this won't apply to all herbs across the board, but I had to boil my own formula the other day and my pharmacy doesn't stock zhi ma huang. I had a bag of ma huang to honey fry, but as I was feeling particularly lazy (and figured I could use some exterior-releasing), I just threw the raw ma huang in the decoction and squeezed in a bit of honey. Which started me thinking about what the difference actually was. The ma huang was probably heated as much by the decoction as it would be by honey-frying, immediately followed by decoction. Decocting probably dissolves any carmelization around the ma huang, which might have prevented the full range of constituents from coming out. The tonifying sweetness was in the decoction just by adding the honey. Any sense of what is lost? And if the formula calls for zhi ma huang and gan cao, would ma huang and zhi gan cao be an equivalent substitute? Karen Vaughan CreationsGarden *************************************** Email advice is not a substitute for medical treatment. In a dark time, the eye begins to see. " -- Theodore Roethke ______________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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