Raw materials

There are roughly 13,000 medicinals used in China and over 100,000 medicinal recipes recorded in the ancient literature. Plant elements and extracts are by far the most common elements used. In the classic Handbook of Traditional Drugs from 1941517 drugs were listed - out of these, only 45 were animal parts, and 30 were minerals.For many plants used as medicinals, detailed instructions have been handed down not only regarding the locations and areas where they grow best, but also regarding the best timing of planting and harvesting them.

Some animal parts used as medicinals can be considered rather strange such as cows' gallstones.

Traditional Chinese Medicine also includes some human parts: the classic Materia medica (Bencao Gangmu) describes the use of 35 human body parts and excreta in medicines, including bones, fingernail, hairs, dandruff, earwax, impurities on the teeth, feces, urine, sweat, and organs, but most are no longer in use.

Preparation
Each herbal medicine prescription is a cocktail of many substances, usually tailored to the individual patient.
Decoction

Typically, one batch of medicinals is prepared as a decoction of about 9 to 18 substances. Some of these are considered as main herbs, some as ancillary herbs; within the ancillary herbs, up to three categories can be distinguished. Some ingredients are added in order to cancel out toxicity or side-effects of the main ingredients; on top of that, some medicinals require the use of other substances as catalysts.

Chinese Patent Medicine
They are standardized herbal formulas. From ancient times, pills were formed by combining several herbs and other ingredients, which were dried and ground into a powder. They were then mixed with a binder and formed into pills by hand. The binder was traditionally honey. Modern teapills, however, are extracted in stainless steel extractors to create either a water decoction or water-alcohol decoction, depending on the herbs used. They are extracted at a low temperature (below 100 degrees Celsius) to preserve essential ingredients. The extracted liquid is then further condensed, and some raw herb powder from one of the herbal ingredients is mixed in to form an herbal dough. This dough is then machine cut into tiny pieces, a small amount of excipients are added for a smooth and consistent exterior, and they are spun into pills. Teapills are characteristically little round black pills.

Chinese patent medicines are easy and convenient. They are not easy to customize on a patient-by-patient basis, however. They are often used when a patient's condition is not severe and the medicine can be taken as a long-term treatment.

These medicines are not patented in the traditional sense of the word. No one has exclusive rights to the formula. Instead, "patent" refers to the standardization of the formula. In China, all Chinese patent medicines of the same name will have the same proportions of ingredients, and manufactured in accordance with the PRC Pharmacopoeia, which is mandated by law. However, in western countries there may be variations in the proportions of ingredients in patent medicines of the same name, and even different ingredients altogether.

Several producers of Chinese herbal medicines are pursuing FDA clinical trials to market their products as drugs in U.S. and European markets. 

Chinese Herbal Extracts

Chinese herbal extracts are herbal decoctions that have been condensed into a granular or powdered form. Herbal extracts, similar to patent medicines, are easier and more convenient for patients to take. The industry extraction standard is 5:1, meaning for every five pounds of raw materials, one pound of herbal extract is derived.

There are several different methods to classify traditional Chinese medicinals:

Four Natures

The Four Natures are: hot, warm, cool, cold or neutral, in terms of temperature). Hot and warm herbs are used to treat cold diseases, while cool and cold herbs are used to treat heat diseases.

Five Flavors

The Five Flavors, sometimes also translated as Five Tastes, are: acrid/pungent, sweet, bitter, sour, and salty. Substances may also have more than one flavor, or none. Each of the Five Flavors corresponds to one of the zang organs, which in turn corresponds to one of the Five Phases: A flavor implies certain properties and therapeutic actions of a substance: saltiness "drains downward and softens hard masses"; sweetness is "supplementing, harmonizing, and moistening"; pungent substances are thought to induce sweat and act on qi and blood; sourness tends to be astringent in nature; bitterness "drains heat, purges the bowels, and eliminates dampness".

Meridians

This classification refers not just to the meridian, but also to the meridian-associated zang-organ, which can be expected to be primarily affected by a given medicinal (there are 12 standard meridians in the body a medicinal can act upon). For example, traditional beliefs hold that menthol is pungent and cool and goes to the Lung and the Liver channels. The Traditional Chinese concept of the Lungs includes the function of protecting the body from colds, and menthol is thought to cool the Lungs and purge heat toxins caused by wind-heat invasion (one of the patterns of common cold).

Specific function

These categories mainly include:

• exterior-releasing or exterior-resolving
• heat-clearing
• downward-draining or precipitating
• wind-damp-dispelling
• dampness-transforming
• promoting the movement of water and percolating dampness or dampness-percolating
• interior-warming
• qi-regulating or qi-rectifying
• dispersing food accumulation or food-dispersing
• worm-expelling
• stopping bleeding or blood-stanching
• quickening the Blood and dispelling stasis or blood-quickening or Blood-moving
• transforming phlegm, stopping coughing and calming wheezing or phlegm-transforming and cough- and panting-suppressing
• Spirit-quieting or Shen-calming
• calming the Liver and expelling wind or Liver-calming and wind-extinguishing
• orifice-opening
• supplementing or tonifying: this includes qi-supplementing, blood-nourishing, yin-enriching, and yang-fortifying
• astriction-promoting or securing and astringing
• vomiting-inducing
• substances for external application