Thoughts and methods of Chinese materia medica processing—Taking research on Rehmanniae Radix processing as an example

Chinese materia medica(CMM) processing is one of the characteristics and advantages of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM),which is also an important discipline with our independent intellectual property rights.The mechanism of CMM processing is the key point of CMM research,which is also the key node of CMM modernization.Most mechanisms of CMM processing are unclear until now,which request the systematical and deep research.Raw and processed Rehmanniae Radix have the different pharmacological effects in clinical application,because there are lots of chemical reactions occurred during the steaming process.In the recent years,scientists all over the world have done lots of research on the changes and mechanisms of Rehmanniae Radix by steaming process under high temperature,and series of research achievements were obtained with the application of many new methods and technologies.These achievements provide not only many new ideas and methods for the mechanism exploration of CMM processing,but also the demonstration for researching and clarifying the mechanisms of CMM processing.