Zuo Shaoyang said: "Uncle, what I told you is a true fact, absolutely true." Not bluffing. You'll find out later. ”

"Yes, yes, I was wrong. Let's go back and let them cut it like this, and tell those herb dealers like this. "I wish the medicine cabinet and laughed." These are all minor problems, are there any big ones? ”

"Big?" Zuo Shaoyang smiled, "I went to your Hengchang medicine store a few days ago, and saw that your bags of medicinal materials are stacked in the compartments and warehouses of each side room like this, although they are stacked neatly, but rats and insects are afraid that they will not be polite, right?" ”

Zhu Yao patted his thigh and said, "That's it, this is the one that gives me the most headache, and there are almost two or three percent of the medicinal materials that are lost every year!" There are four or five percent of many years! Watching the silver of the white flowers turn into water, my heart hurts! Brother, you can help me solve this problem, I can't do without your benefits! In a hurry, Zhu Yao's cabinet and Zuo Shaoyang also came almost together, calling him his brother.

Zuo Shaoyang in the modern society of the hospital is in charge of the Chinese medicine pharmacy, the storage of traditional Chinese medicine has strict requirements, however, the application of the current technology in ancient times can not be used, such as the modern Chinese medicine pharmacy warehouse is modern temperature control management, many Chinese medicine pieces are sealed with plastic bags for vacuum treatment, and some are also filled with nitrogen and other methods for insecticide and antiseptic. These modern technologies could not be used in ancient times, but some measures within our power can still be adopted to reduce this loss to a certain extent.

Considering these, Zuo Shaoyang didn't dare to say anything, otherwise he would give people a bad impression of boasting, and then he would have lost all his efforts, and said at the moment: "I have seen the management of the medicinal herb warehouse better, although there are also insects and rats biting mildew, but it will not be as much as you have lost, I say you listen to it, you can use it if you think it is useful, if it is not reliable, don't use it." As for the reward, hehe, you just look at it. ”

"Okay, you say!"

"If you want to prevent insects from eating rats, gnawing mildew and other losses, you have to figure out the causes of these, and then take measures to achieve satisfactory results."

I wish the medicine cabinet nodded frequently.

Zuo Shaoyang took a sip of tea and said slowly: "The storage of medicinal materials will be moth-eaten, moldy, oily, discolored, and tasteless, which will affect the quality of medicinal materials. There are many reasons for these variations, but let's start with the big picture, air, humidity, temperature, sun, mold, and insect pests can all cause the herbs to deteriorate......"

Zuo Shaoyang saw the unaware appearance of the medicine cabinet, and knew that his words involved modern words such as temperature, but he couldn't understand it, so he said: "Does the decoction pieces of your medicine store appear to be soaked in oil on the surface?" ”

"Yes! Often, we call it oil, oiled decoction pieces are not easy to sell, and sometimes people don't want to lower the price. What's going on? I just don't understand. ”

Zuo Shaoyang couldn't explain to him that the chemical reaction caused by oxygen and ozone in the air on the decoction pieces led to oiling, so he could only explain it with the theory of external evil in traditional Chinese medicine: "The six external evils of wind, cold, summer, dampness, dryness, and fire can not only harm people's bodies, but also cause damage to medicinal materials." ”

"Oh?"

"It's like this pan oil, it's caused by wind evil and heat evil damaging the decoction pieces! It will cause the smell of medicinal materials to be lost, the quality will deteriorate or even lose its efficacy. Therefore, it is necessary to shorten the process as much as possible, so do not store the processed decoction pieces for a long time, it is best to order them and then concoct them, and ship them away as soon as they are ready. ”

Zhu medicine cabinet said: "Well, so that's the case, the concoction master of our medicine store is convenient, and he concocts a lot of them at once, and he stores them if he can't sell them at once, I thought it was not a big problem, but it still didn't work." ”

"Naturally, no, in addition to the wind evil, the summer evil will also damage the decoction pieces, the most suitable decoction pieces are in the spring of March, the spring flowers are blooming, this kind of weather is more suitable for the preservation of decoction pieces, but in the summer of Sanjiu, the summer evil will also damage the decoction pieces, resulting in oil. Some animal glue drugs and resin drugs will be affected by the heat evil and soften, sticking into lumps. Right? ”

"yes, how can this be prevented?"

"Cool down! On hot days, store the herbs in a cool and ventilated place, it is best to dig a well-ventilated basement for storage, if it is not too troublesome, you can also get an ice store, and use ice to cool down in summer, of course, this cost is too high. “

"Well, let me go back and figure it out. You go on. ”

"In winter, we should also take measures to keep warm, because although the cold can inhibit insect pests, some fresh herbs are not resistant to severe cold, such as fresh dendrobium, fresh reed roots, and some drugs with a lot of water content, and too cold days will also damage the herbs."

"The destruction of medicinal herbs by the wind evil and the summer evil is slightly easier to deal with, and the more difficult thing to deal with is the wet evil!"

Zhu Medicine Cabinet slapped his thigh and said, "That's right, this is the most painful problem for me, and it gives me more headaches than the worm eating rat bites!" Especially in the rainy and humid days, the medicinal herbs are most likely to mildew and insects, and a lot of bad ones are distressed! Do you have any good ideas? ”

In this modern era, according to the different surnames and qualities of medicinal materials, the method of separate storage and the use of modern means to control the humidity can achieve the goal. It was impossible to do it in ancient times, and it could only be simplified because of ugliness, however, Zuo Shaoyang looked at the warehouse of Hengchang Pharmaceutical Store and found that their medicinal materials were all packed in sacks, stacked on top of each other like grain, which is not surprising, the storage and storage of medicinal materials is generally only involved in large medicinal material dealers. Generally, pharmacies, medical halls and small medicinal herb dealers, the number of medicinal materials is small, and the storage is relatively simple, so the accumulation of experience in this area is much behind the processing of medicinal materials. In the early Tang Dynasty, the processing of medicinal materials was still at a relatively low level, not to mention the storage of medicinal materials. I don't even have basic knowledge of ventilation and drying.

Zuo Shaoyang naturally wouldn't tell him these things easily, so he had to hang his appetite and said with a smile: "You have done too poorly in preventing dampness and evil, and you have a lot of work to do in your medicine store to prevent the invasion of dampness and evil on medicinal materials." Hey. ”

"I know, can you give me some pointers, how can I prevent dampness?"

"Hehe, what I said earlier, does the old man think it makes sense?"

Zhu Medicine Cabinet was stunned for a moment, and then smiled: "Yes, yes, it makes sense, it's because I'm too anxious, what you said earlier is very useful to me, but, to be honest, I'd rather believe that what you said is right, but I haven't used it, and I don't know what the effect is." So, I'll give you a little reward first, and I'll use it according to your method in the future, and if it really works, I'll make it up to you at that time, how about it? ”

Zuo Shaoyang smiled and nodded. The reason why he chose the storage knowledge of medicinal materials is because these knowledge is not easy to keep secret, and he will use it in the future, as long as the preventive means used are effective, it is easy for others to learn from it, and it is difficult to keep it secret, so it is better to sell it while he can sell it for a little money now, and this kind of technology is only meaningful to a big medicinal herb merchant like Zhu Yaojiao, and he is not ready to engage in the medicinal materials business in the future, and he will not use it.

Zhu picked up the scissors in the medicine cabinet, cut off two more hangs of money, and put them in front of Zuo Shaoyang: "You continue to talk about how to prevent dampness." If I feel it makes sense, I'll give me money. ”

Zuo Shaoyang said: "To prevent dampness, the most important thing is the environment in which the medicinal materials are stored. The medicinal herb warehouse must be ventilated, and at the same time, it must be easy to seal, and moisture-proof measures must be taken. Therefore, the warehouse must be raised, and it is best to build a stilted building. The hanging height is about three feet, which can isolate the moisture from the ground. On the ground under the stilted building, moisture-absorbing materials such as quicklime and plant ash should be buried, and a certain amount of charcoal should be placed in the warehouse to absorb the moisture of the warehouse. It is also necessary to build a flat dam for drying medicinal herbs in a sheltered place from the wind and the sun. When there is sun during the rainy season, the herbs should be taken out to dry. During the rainy season, if necessary, it is even necessary to bake it in a furnace oven. It is especially important that the medicinal herbs cannot be stacked on top of each other like you, so it is strange that there will be no mold and no insects. ”

"How do you put it?"

"Stored on shelves. And it's going to be sorted! ”

"Stored on shelves?"

"Yes, the shelves are very simple, just like the bookshelves, each layer puts a bag of medicinal materials, there should be enough space ventilation up and down, left and right, and the sack containing the medicinal materials should not be too big, otherwise the medicinal materials piled up in it will be damaged. The sensitivity of medicinal materials to dampness is different, and some are particularly afraid of dampness, such as yam, zexiao, fritillary, etc., which will mildew when damp. Astragalus will turn green when wet, angelica will turn black when wet, and there are some salt-containing mineral herbs, which will dissolve when wet, and the honey-burning medicine will stick due to moisture absorption after moisture, and the surface will be moldy. Powdered medicines will absorb moisture and stick into lumps. However, some herbs must be kept at a certain humidity, otherwise they will be weathered. Therefore, these medicinal materials should be stored in different warehouses according to their different degrees of fear of dampness, heat, and wind. ――Do you know which herbs should be stored together? ”

I wish the medicine cabinet is bigger, and I shook my head with a wry smile.

"I can't tell you for a while. You can't remember what you said. Let's talk about something else first. Remember, the storage of medicinal materials, the warehouse must be clean, cleaning and sanitation is the basis of all prevention and control work, only to ensure the cleanliness and hygiene of the warehouse, in order to eliminate the way of pest infection, to ensure the quality of medicinal materials. In addition, the packaging used to store medicinal materials is also particular. May I ask you, uncle, what kind of medicinal herbs do you use? ”

"Sack, what else can there be? By the way, if it's like those powders that will leak, they will be packed in boxes. ”

"What about ginseng, deer antler, borneol, angelica, herb, peppermint, angelica?"

"yes. How? Isn't it appropriate? ”

"Of course not!" Zuo Shaoyang said, "Ginseng, these valuable medicinal materials should be specially preserved, and aromatic drugs such as fragrant herbs and peppermint, the fragrance is the magic weapon that can cure diseases, if it is not well preserved, the smell has dissipated, how to cure the disease?" ”

"What then?"

"As I have just said, external evils such as wind evil, damp evil, and heat evil will damage medicinal materials, and in addition to ventilating, moisture-proof, and avoiding high and low temperatures in the warehouse, measures must be taken to isolate them from these external evils as much as possible. ――Do you know how to isolate? ”

"Brother, please." Zhu medicine cabinet arched his hand, and seeing that Zuo Shaoyang did not move, he patted his head, and hurriedly cut a copper coin for him.