Chinese Herbal Cuisine used as Therapy

Medicated diet for dietetic therapy is a diet made from salutary drugs, food and condiments. Concretely speaking, medicated diet can be prepared either from edible Chinese drugs alone, or from Chinese crude drugs and food according to certain prescriptions, by processing and cooking. In light of its form and process, medicated diet can be divided into eleven kinds.

1) Fresh juice
It is the juice extracted from edible Chinese drugs alone, such as flesh fruits, or together with some fresh, clean-washed Chinese crude drugs.  For example, Five-Juice Drink is made from the juices of water chestnut (Bulbus Heleocharis Tuberosae), fresh Rhizoma Phragmitis (Lugen), fresh lotus root (Rhizoma Nelumbinis), pear (Malum Piri) and fresh lilyturf root (Radix Ophiopogonis).

2) Medicated tea, also known as "Daichayin" (infusion drunk instead of tea)
It is the coarsely mixed powder of drugs with tea or with no tea (some soft prepared herbal medicine in small pieces for decoction can also be used without being pounded). Edible Chinese drugs such as fruits and vegetables are often used as ingredients of medicated tea, while drastic or extremely bitter crude drugs are usually not used. It is to be taken frequently as common tea after being infused in boiling water or decocted in water. Ginger and Sugar Tea, for instance, which is used to treat wind-cold type of common cold, is made from fresh ginger (Rhizoma Zingerberis Recens) and brown sugar.

3) Drink 
It is a liquid dose for dietetic therapy, which is prepared usually by decocting in water for a while edible Chinese drugs alone, or along with some crude drugs, and by sifting the extract from the dregs.  It is to be taken as a drink. Composite Corn Stigma Drink, for example, is such a drink, which is used to treat ascites due to Cirrhosis.

4) Medicated wine
It is a liquid dose made by combining wine with Chinese drugs.  It can be made by either infusing or brewing.  The medicaments used are usually chosen from edible Chinese drugs too. For example, Spirit of Ginseng, Gecko and Cordyceps (Dongchongxiacao) is of this kind, which is used to treat bronchial asthma at remission stage.

5) Decoction
It is the liquid prepared by decocting together edible Chinese drugs, crude drugs and solvent (usually water, sometimes wine or honey is used), that is, the decoction of medicated diet. For example, Decoction of Radix Angelicae Sinensis (Danggui) Root, Fresh Ginger and Mutton recorded in Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases is of this kind.

6) Medicated gruel
It is a kind of gruel prepared by cooking together drugs, or decoctions, and rice, which is curative or has the function for health care. If edible Chinese drugs, such as lily bulb (Bulbus Lilii), Semen Coicis (Yiyiren), longan aril (Arillus Longan), red bean (Semen Phaseoli), white hyacinth bean (Semen Dolichoris Album) and Chinese-date (Fruetus Ziziphi jujubae), are used, they can be washed clean and cooked together with rice; if other crude drugs are used, first decoct them in water, sift the liquid from the dregs, then make gruel with the liquid and rice.  The gruel can also be prepared by first adding drug powder or decoction to almost done gruel; then cooking it for a few seconds more. In this book or other monographs on medicated diet, medicated gruel makes up a great proportion.

7) Honey extract 
Honey extract, also known as soft extract or decoction extract, is a thick half-liquid dose prepared by first decocting in water edible Chinese drugs or crude drugs "and sifting the liquid from the dregs; then, after enriching the liquid, mixing in Bee Honey (Fengmi) or sucrose. Take Flavored Extract of Fritillary Bulb and Pear.  It is applicable to patients with bronchial asthma.

8) Medicated cake
It is a cooked food prepared by first grinding edible Chinese drugs into powder which are salutary or have the function for health care, or grinding them together with relevant crude drugs; then mixing the powder with rice flour, or wheat flour, or bean flour, or a right amount of white sugar, cooking oil and finally making cakes with the mixture by either steaming or baking. Take Eight-Ingredient Cake for example. It can be used to treat chronic enteritis.

9) Medicated pancake
It is a kind of cooked food prepared by first grinding together curative edible Chinese drugs with the function for health care and relevant medicaments into powder; then mixing the powder with wheat flour, or rice flour, or bean flour, or a right amount of jujube paste, white sugar, cooking oil, etc.; and finally making pancakes with the mixture by steaming, baking in a pan or in an oven, or frying. Pancake Warming the Middle-jiao and Strengthening the Stomach, for instance, can be taken by patients suffering from chronic gastritis of cold of insufficiency type or peptic ulcer.

10) Cooked dishes
This is a large group of medicated diet, including varieties of meat and vegetable dishes which are curative and can be used for health care.  It is prepared by cooking chicken, or duck, or fish, or vegetable, etc. along with drugs and condiments. It can be cooked in many ways: stewed, braised, simmered, steamed, boiled, cooked in water, stir-fried, roasted, fricasseed, deep-fried and so on. For example, Baby Pigeon Stewed with Radix Ginseng (Renshen), Astragalus Root and Cordyceps can be used to treat bronchial asthma at remission stage; and Turtle Stewed with Radix Angelicae Sinensis (Danggui) Root and Wolf berry Fruit can be used to treat early Cirrhosis.