A Definitive Guide to Pao Zhi

What is Pao Zhi? What separates Huang Qin and Huang Qin (Jiu)? If you've had these questions in the past, this article is for you!

As Eric Brand describes, Pao Zhi is "a distinctive and uniquely developed feature of Chinese herbal medicine." It includes a variety of methods used to process herbs before usage. The effects of Pao Zhi vary by item and process - Pao Zhi can be used to:

(1): Enhance the effect of ingredients and improve efficacy of herbs
(2): Reduce or eliminate the toxicity or side effects of herbs and ensure safety
(3): Expand the scope of its an herb's applications
(4): Facilitate more stable storage
(5): Purify the extract to ensure quality
(6): To correct odor and taste for ease of consumption
(7): Guide herbs into specific channels to facilitate targeted effects

Pao Zhi is an essential part of Tianjiang's production process, and as such we have a wide variety of Pao Zhi herbs available.The specific processing for each herb is based on a mixture of traditional knowledge, extensive chemical research, and on the standards of the Chinese Pharmacopeia. 

In Chinese, Pao Zhi is usually a prefix to the names of herbs (example: Mi Zhi Gan Cao is the honey-treated version of Gan Cao).  However, in English, Pao Zhi is usually a suffix to the names of herbs.  This is because sorting alphabetically by the name of the herb rather than sorting by the Pao Zhi naturally groups multiple versions of the same herb together.

Some of the most common Pao Zhi methods are listed in the table below. 

Name	Chinese	Processing Method
Sheng	生	Unprocessed
Zhi	炙	Cook
Yan Zhi	盐炙	Cook With Salt
Jiu Zhi	酒炙	Cook in Wine
Cu Zhi	醋炙	Cook in Vinegar
Jiang Zhi	姜炙	Cook with Ginger
Chao	炒	Stir-Fry
Fu Chao	麩炒	Stir-Fry with Wheat Bran
Duan	煅	Calcinate (heat to high temperature)
Jiao	焦	Burn
Tan	炭	Carbonize
Chan	燀	Boil

Note: Sometimes "Zhi" is omitted from the names of herbs; for example, "Huang Qi (Mi Zhi)" is often known as "Huang Qi (Mi)".  Conversely, sometimes "Mi" is omitted from the names of herbs; for example "Gan Cao (Mi)" is often known as "Zhi Gan Cao".

Pao Zhi can have distinctive effects on the benefits and usage of a particular herb, so it's important to understand the usages of each version. For example: Gan Cao is a neutral temperature herb, but turns into a warm herb when processed with honey into Gan Cao (Mi).

We carry unprocessed (Sheng) versions of most herbs. Very often, we also carry in Pao Zhi versions that are very hard to find or simply not available elsewhere. Some herbs are toxic without preparation - in these cases, we won't carry the unprocessed version at all (for example, we carry Chen Pi (Chao) but not Chen Pi).

Nicholas Duchnowski of TCMStudy also has a great video on the topic of Pao Zhi with illustrations and explanations of each process:

If you have any additional questions about particular herbs, you can set up a consultation with Dr. Wang, or send us an email at herbs@treasureoftheeast.com.