中药炮制是指在中医理论的指导下，按中医用药要求将中药材加工成中药饮片的传统方法和技术。

The processing techniques of Chinese medicine refer to the traditional methods and techniques of processing medicinal materials into medicinal pieces ready for decoction under the guidance of traditional Chinese medicinal theories as required by medical doctors.

　   在中药铺抓药时，我们会看到药剂师手里拿着一杆秤，然后拉开一排排的小抽屉，从中抓出不同的药材配在一起。这些药就是经过炮制的。中药材经炮制后，不仅可以提高药效、降低药物的毒副作用，而且方便存储。中药炮制在中医理论和运用中具有相当重要的作用，医生可以根据不同的病因、症候及患者的身体健康状态等，选用恰当的炮制品，来提高医疗效果。

When filling a prescription in a pharmacy of traditional Chinese medicine, one may see a pharmacist, holding a steelyard in his/her hand, opens rows of small drawers from which different kinds of medicinal pieces are taken out and mixed together. These are processed medicines. Herbal materials, after being processed, show a better curative effect and reduced side effects as well as being more convenient for storage. Medicine processing plays a fairly important role in the theories and practices of traditional Chinese medicine, making it possible for doctors to take different causes and symptoms of the diseases and different physical conditions of the patient into consideration and choose a proper processed medicine to enhance the curative effect.

　   中药炮制具有十分悠久的历史，早在先秦时代的古书中，就出现了大量炮制中药的内容。南北朝时期，一位药学家撰写了中国第一部炮制专著《雷公炮炙论》，记载了300种药物的炮制方法与技术，对后世中药炮制影响很大。

The processing of traditional Chinese medicine has a long history in China, making its appearance in many ancient books from the pre-Qin period. In the period of the Northern and Southern dynasties, a pharmacologist wrote Lei Gong’s Treatise on Preparation of Materia Medica, the first book in China about the processing of traditional Chinese medicine, which has recorded 300 methods and techniques for medicine processing and exerted a great influence on later generations.

　   几千年来，中国积累了丰富的炮制方法与技术，而且也形成了一套传统的炮制加工工具。现在仍广泛使用的炮制方法有炒法、炙法、煅法、煨法等，应用的工具也是多种多样。传统手工操作炮制工具有切药刀、片刀、锉、铁锤、碾槽等。随着科技的发展，中药炮制开始应用机械，如轧粉用的粉碎机，切制饮片用的切药机等。

Over the past thousands of years, Chinese people have accumulated quite a large number of processing methods and techniques and developed a set of traditional tools for processing medicine. The processing methods which are still in wide use include stir-frying, roasting, forging and stewing, and the tools are also of a rich variety, featuring such traditional hand tools as the herb chopper, slicer knife, file, hammer and mill groove. With the development of science and technology, certain machines are now applied to process Chinese medicine, such as the pulverators used for making powder and the cutter machines for making pieces.