Processing method of sheet-shaped medicinal material

Abstract

The application belongs to the technical field of medicinal material processing, and particularly relates to a processing method of flaky medicinal materials; the medicinal materials to be processed are cleaned and washed; the washed medicinal materials are loaded into a vacuum medicine moistening tank, inert gas is filled into the tank to replace air, and the oxygen content in the tank is reduced below a preset safety threshold; a vacuum pump is started to perform vacuumizing treatment on the medicine moistening tank; a certain amount of medicine moistening liquid is sprayed into the medicine moistening tank through an atomizing nozzle, and the medicine moistening liquid penetrates into the medicinal materials under the action of pressure difference; the weight of the medicinal materials is monitored in real time through a weighing sensor, and if the weight gain rate of the medicinal materials does not reach a target softening moisture content, steps S3 to S5 are repeated; inert gas is slowly put into the tank to reach normal pressure, and the medicinal materials are placed and moistened to make the liquid in the medicinal materials uniformly distributed; the softened medicinal materials are taken out and sliced; the sliced medicinal materials are placed in a drying device, and are dried by ultrasonic wave assistance combined with low-temperature heat source; and the method realizes integrated and controllable processing from pretreatment to finished product packaging.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention belongs to the field of medicinal material processing technology, and specifically relates to a method for processing sliced ​​medicinal materials. Background Technology

[0002] Before being processed into medicinal slices or used in preparations, Chinese medicinal herbs typically undergo a series of processing steps. For hard herbs such as roots, rhizomes, and fruits, the processing generally includes: raw material selection, softening treatment, slicing, and drying or roasting. Among these, softening treatment is an indispensable and crucial step before slicing. Since most Chinese medicinal herbs are already fully dried after initial processing at the place of origin, they are hard or tough. If directly sliced, they are prone to breakage, cracking, and crumbling, resulting not only in raw material loss but also affecting the appearance and smoothness of the slices and the dissolution efficiency of active ingredients during subsequent decoction. Therefore, traditional processes often use methods such as soaking in water, moistening with water, or steaming to soften the dried herbs, allowing them to absorb an appropriate amount of moisture and regain their toughness, making them easier to slice, segment, or block. After slicing, the softened slices need to be dried for easier storage and subsequent processing. Common methods include sun-drying, air-drying, hot-air drying, or stir-frying to remove excess moisture and reach the specified moisture content standard.

[0003] However, the aforementioned existing processing methods have significant technical drawbacks in practical applications. During the softening stage, medicinal materials typically require prolonged contact with water or steam, causing some water-soluble active ingredients (such as glycosides, polysaccharides, and alkaloid salts) to dissolve and be lost. More seriously, during subsequent drying or roasting, the moisture inside the medicinal slices rapidly vaporizes, boils, and evaporates upon heating. In this process, the liquid water transforms into steam, physically carrying away or dissolving the medicinal substances within the herbs. As the steam escapes, some active ingredients are carried to the surface of the slices or even detach from the herb itself, resulting in abnormal loss of these active ingredients. Especially for heat-sensitive and volatile components, high-temperature drying can lead to their decomposition or volatilization, further reducing the medicinal value of the herbs. Conversely, low-temperature drying requires a longer time and makes the herbs more susceptible to mold. In existing technologies, although methods such as low-temperature drying and vacuum drying are used to try to alleviate the above problems, these methods are often expensive and have low processing efficiency, and still cannot fundamentally avoid the dragging effect of water vaporization on the active pharmaceutical substances.

[0004] Based on this, in order to avoid the problem that the slice quality and softening effect have great randomness and instability, which makes it difficult to achieve controllability of the processing process and consistency of product quality, a processing method for sliced ​​medicinal materials is proposed. Summary of the Invention

[0005] To address the aforementioned problems in the prior art, this invention provides a method for processing sheet-like medicinal materials.

[0006] The objective of this invention can be achieved through the following technical solutions: A method for processing sheet-like medicinal materials according to the present invention includes the following steps: S1, Pre-treatment: Clean and wash the medicinal materials to be processed to remove impurities; S2, Filling and Replacement: The cleaned medicinal materials are placed into the vacuum moistening tank, the tank door is closed, and inert gas is introduced into the tank to replace the air, so that the oxygen content in the tank drops below the preset safety threshold. S3, Vacuum Exhaust: Start the vacuum pump to evacuate the medicine-moistening tank and remove the air from the intercellular spaces of the medicinal materials; S4, metered spraying: Under vacuum conditions, a metered amount of moistening solution is sprayed into the moistening tank through an atomizing nozzle. The moistening solution penetrates into the medicinal material under the action of pressure difference. S5, Pressure-holding permeation: Maintain a vacuum state for a certain period of time to allow the soaking solution to fully permeate the medicinal materials; S6, Weight gain monitoring: The weight of the medicinal materials is monitored in real time by weighing sensors. If the weight gain rate of the medicinal materials does not reach the target softened moisture content, steps S3 to S5 are repeated until the target value is reached. S7, Humidification and Balancing: Slowly introduce inert gas into the container to atmospheric pressure, let it stand to humidify, so that the liquid inside the medicinal material is evenly distributed; S8, Slicing: Take out the softened medicinal materials and slice them to obtain medicinal material slices; S9, Ultrasonic Drying: The sliced ​​medicinal materials are placed in a drying device and dried using ultrasonic assistance combined with a low-temperature heat source; S10, Finished product collection: After drying until the moisture content meets the pharmacopoeia standard, the product is discharged and packaged.

[0007] As a further aspect of the present invention, in step S2, the inert gas is nitrogen; the preset safety threshold is an oxygen content volume fraction of less than 5%; in step S7, the inert gas introduced is also nitrogen.

[0008] As a further embodiment of the present invention, in step S3, the vacuum degree of the vacuuming process is in the range of -0.08 MPa to -0.095 MPa; the pressure holding time is 10 minutes to 30 minutes; the vacuum exhaust process is carried out in stages, first vacuuming to -0.05 MPa and holding for 5 minutes, and then continuing to vacuum to the target vacuum degree.

[0009] As a further embodiment of the present invention, in step S4, the atomizing nozzle is a high-pressure gas-assisted atomizing nozzle with a droplet size range of 50μm to 200μm; the wettant is injected in a pulsed manner.

[0010] As a further aspect of the present invention, in step S4, an appropriate amount of alcohol is added to the moistening solution according to the solubility characteristics of the effective components of the medicinal materials, with the proportion in the moistening solution ranging from 30% to 70%; for medicinal materials containing volatile components, the proportion of rice wine in the moistening solution is set to 30% to 40%; for medicinal materials with hard texture and containing alcohol-soluble components, the proportion of rice wine in the moistening solution is set to 50% to 70%.

[0011] As a further embodiment of the present invention, in step S6, the target softened moisture content is calculated as a percentage of the dry weight of the medicinal material, and the target weight gain rate ranges from 20% to 40% of the dry weight of the medicinal material; the weighing sensor is integrated into the bottom of the moistening tank, and the control system automatically determines whether to proceed to step S7 or return to step S3 based on the real-time weight data.

[0012] As a further aspect of the present invention, in step S7, the time for standing and moistening is 30 to 60 minutes; during the moistening process, the outer wall of the medicine moistening tank is wrapped with a heat insulation layer to keep the temperature inside the tank between 20°C and 30°C.

[0013] As a further aspect of the present invention, in step S8, the slicing process is carried out within 1 hour after softening; the slice thickness is set according to the type of medicinal material, ranging from 1 mm to 5 mm; and the slicing tool is a low-temperature cooled tool.

[0014] As a further aspect of the present invention, in step S9, the frequency range of the ultrasonic assistance is 20kHz to 40kHz, and the power density is 0.5 W / cm² to 1.0 W / cm²; the temperature range of the low-temperature heat source is 40℃ to 50℃; the drying method is vacuum low-temperature drying or heat pump dehumidification drying, and the ultrasonic waves operate in an intermittent mode.

[0015] As a further embodiment of the present invention, step S11 is also included: solvent recovery and backwashing: during the drying process in step S9, the volatilized liquid gas is recovered by a condenser to obtain a recovered liquid; the content of effective components in the recovered liquid is detected, and if the content of effective components is higher than a preset threshold, the recovered liquid is preferentially used in step S4 for the next batch of medicinal materials for moisturizing, or sprayed back onto the surface of the current batch of medicinal materials in proportion.

[0016] The beneficial effects of this invention are as follows: First, impurities in the medicinal materials are removed through cleaning to ensure their basic quality; then, inert gas is used to replace the air inside the tank to create an oxygen-free and safe environment; air inside the medicinal materials is discharged through vacuum exhaust to form a negative pressure environment, allowing the moistening solution to quickly penetrate the medicinal materials under pressure difference. Combined with pressure holding, circulating soaking, and weight gain monitoring, the amount of soaking solution and the degree of softening are precisely controlled; the balanced soaking and softening process ensures that the solvent is evenly distributed inside the medicinal materials, achieving full softening without a hard core; subsequent rapid slicing ensures the quality of the slicing; ultrasonic-assisted low-temperature drying balances drying efficiency and retention of medicinal components, ultimately yielding standard-compliant sliced ​​medicinal materials. The entire process is an integrated and controllable process from pretreatment to finished product packaging. Attached Figure Description

[0017] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0018] Figure 1 This is a flowchart of the steps of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0019] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0020] like Figure 1 As shown in the figure, this embodiment discloses a method for processing sliced ​​medicinal materials, specifically including the following steps: S1, Pretreatment: Select hard white peony as the medicinal material to be processed, clean and wash it, remove mud, insect-infested, moldy and deteriorated parts and non-medicinal roots and stems, rinse quickly with running water to remove surface impurities, drain the surface free water after washing to avoid water residue affecting the subsequent soaking accuracy of the medicinal solution.

[0021] S2, Filling and Replacement: Neatly pack the cleaned and drained white peony into the vacuum moistening tank, ensuring that the filling volume does not exceed 2 / 3 of the tank's volume, thus guaranteeing space for gas and solvent circulation. Close and seal the tank door. Fill the tank with high-purity inert gas to continuously replace the original air inside the tank until the oxygen content drops below the preset safety threshold, preventing the mixing of moistening liquid vapor and oxygen from causing flammability and explosion, and ensuring production safety.

[0022] S3, Vacuum Exhaust: Start the vacuum pump to evacuate the sealed vacuum moistening tank. The negative pressure forces out the air trapped in the intercellular spaces and tissue pores of the white peony, eliminating the air's obstruction to the penetration of the moistening solution and creating negative pressure conditions for the subsequent rapid penetration of the solvent into the medicinal material.

[0023] S4, Quantitative Spray: Maintaining the vacuum state inside the moistening tank, a precise amount of moistening solution is sprayed in through the atomizing nozzles inside the tank. Driven by the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the tank, the moistening solution quickly penetrates the surface tissue of the white peony and permeates into the intercellular spaces inside the medicinal material, achieving initial moistening from the surface to the shallow layer.

[0024] S5, Pressure Holding and Penetration: Maintain a constant vacuum state inside the vacuum moistening tank for a certain period of time, allowing the sprayed moistening liquid to fully diffuse and moisten the internal tissue of the white peony root, preventing the moistening liquid from merely adhering to the surface of the medicinal material, ensuring that the solvent slowly penetrates deep into the medicinal material, and improving the uniformity of softening.

[0025] S6, Weight gain monitoring: Using the weighing sensor integrated at the bottom of the vacuum moistening tank, the weight change of white peony is monitored in real time, and the weight gain rate of the medicinal material is accurately calculated. If the weight gain rate does not reach the preset target softening moisture content, it means that the moistening solution is insufficient and there is still a hard core inside the medicinal material. The automatic control system triggers a cycle operation, repeating steps S3 to S5 until the weight gain rate of the medicinal material reaches the target value, ensuring that the softening is in place.

[0026] S7, Moistening and Balancing: Slowly introduce inert gas into the container to gradually restore the pressure inside the container to normal pressure, avoiding rapid depressurization that could damage the medicinal material; then let it stand and moisten, using the moistening process to redistribute the moistening liquid that has penetrated into different parts of the white peony root, eliminating the problem of uneven local moistening, and making the overall softening degree of the medicinal material uniform.

[0027] S8, Slicing: Quickly remove the white peony root after it has been moistened and balanced, and use professional medicinal herb slicing equipment to slice it into white peony root slices of uniform thickness, so as to avoid the medicinal material hardening and the slices breaking due to prolonged storage.

[0028] S9, Ultrasonic Drying: The cut white peony slices are evenly spread into the drying equipment and dried simultaneously with ultrasonic assistance and a low-temperature heat source. The physical action of ultrasonic waves enhances the rate of moisture migration, while the low-temperature heat source avoids high temperature damage to the effective components of white peony, thus achieving efficient and quality-preserving drying.

[0029] S10, Finished product collection: Continue drying until the moisture content of the medicinal slices meets the standards stipulated in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. After passing the test, the product is discharged and packaged using pharmaceutical sealed packaging materials to obtain the finished white peony slices.

[0030] Working principle: First, impurities in the medicinal materials are removed through cleaning to ensure their basic quality. Then, inert gas is used to replace the air inside the tank, creating an oxygen-free and safe environment. Vacuum exhaust is used to remove the air inside the medicinal materials, forming a negative pressure environment, allowing the moistening solution to quickly penetrate the medicinal materials under pressure difference. Combined with pressure holding, circulating soaking, and weight gain monitoring, the amount of soaking solution and the degree of softening are precisely controlled. The balancing process ensures that the solvent is evenly distributed inside the medicinal materials, achieving full softening without a hard core. Subsequent rapid slicing ensures the quality of the slicing. Ultrasonic-assisted low-temperature drying balances drying efficiency and retention of medicinal components, ultimately yielding standard-compliant sliced ​​medicinal materials. The entire process is an integrated and controllable process from pretreatment to finished product packaging.

[0031] In step S2, the inert gas is nitrogen. Nitrogen is widely available, inexpensive, chemically stable, does not react with medicinal materials or the moistening solution, and has an excellent effect in isolating oxygen. The preset safety threshold is that the oxygen content by volume is less than 5%. This concentration can completely eliminate the risk of the moistening solution vapor mixing with oxygen to form an explosive gas, thus meeting the safety production standards.

[0032] In step S7, the inert gas introduced is also nitrogen, to maintain a consistent inert gas medium throughout the process, avoid introducing other gases to contaminate the medicinal materials and the environment inside the tank, and at the same time maintain the stability of the anaerobic environment to ensure the safety of the humidification process.

[0033] Nitrogen, as an inert gas, is chemically inert and cannot burn or support combustion. When filled into the vacuum moistening tank, it can quickly expel the air inside the tank, especially reducing the oxygen content. The oxygen content volume fraction is controlled to be less than 5%. In step S7, nitrogen is filled again to restore the normal pressure, which not only prevents outside air from re-entering the tank, but also stabilizes the pressure inside the tank and does not affect the distribution of the moistening solution that has already penetrated the medicinal material.

[0034] In step S3, the vacuum degree of the vacuum treatment ranges from -0.08 MPa to -0.095 MPa. This vacuum degree can effectively remove air from the intercellular spaces of the medicinal materials without damaging the tissue due to excessively high vacuum. The holding time is 10 to 30 minutes, which is adapted to different medicinal material textures. For loose medicinal materials, the holding time is 10-20 minutes, and for dense medicinal materials, it is 20-30 minutes, to ensure that the moistening solution fully penetrates. The vacuum degassing process is carried out in stages. First, the vacuum is drawn to -0.05 MPa and held for 5 minutes, and then the vacuum is drawn to the target vacuum degree.

[0035] The staged vacuum exhaust uses a gradient pressure reduction method. First, the pressure is reduced to -0.05 MPa and maintained to slowly expel air from the surface of the medicinal material and the large pores, allowing the tissue to gradually adapt to the negative pressure environment. Then, the pressure is increased to the target vacuum level of -0.08 MPa to -0.095 MPa to expel residual air from the deep pores and intercellular spaces of the medicinal material. This avoids rapidly shrinking the surface tissue of the medicinal material and clogging the pores due to a one-time high vacuum, which would hinder the expulsion of internal air. During the pressure holding stage, a constant negative pressure is maintained to allow the wetting solution sufficient time to diffuse into the interior of the medicinal material, ensuring thorough wetting.

[0036] In step S4, the atomizing nozzle is a high-pressure gas-assisted atomizing nozzle with a droplet size range of 50μm to 200μm. The droplet size is small and uniform, and it can be quickly dispersed in a vacuum environment. The wettant is injected in a pulsed manner, that is, intermittent quantitative injection, rather than continuous spraying.

[0037] High-pressure gas-assisted atomizing nozzles use high-pressure gas to disperse the wetting solution into tiny droplets of 50μm to 200μm. These small droplets have a large specific surface area and can quickly diffuse to every corner of the container under vacuum negative pressure, ensuring full contact with the surface of the medicinal materials and preventing excessive local wetting caused by the aggregation of large droplets. Pulse spraying allows control of the amount sprayed at one time, enabling the wetting solution droplets to gradually penetrate the medicinal materials and preventing solvent accumulation and over-dissolution of the surface of the medicinal materials caused by continuous spraying. At the same time, in conjunction with a weighing sensor, the wetting amount can be precisely controlled.

[0038] Droplets of a specific size can achieve all-round and uniform wetting of the medicinal liquid, avoiding insufficient or excessive wetting in certain areas and improving the uniformity of softening of medicinal materials; pulse spraying combined with a vacuum environment can achieve precise control of the wetting amount, which is convenient for real-time feedback and adjustment of the weight gain monitoring system and eliminates wetting errors; atomized spraying reduces the waste of medicinal liquid, improves solvent utilization, and avoids liquid erosion that could damage the surface of the medicinal materials.

[0039] In step S4, an appropriate amount of alcohol is added to the moistening solution according to the solubility characteristics of the active ingredients of the medicinal materials, with the proportion in the moistening solution ranging from 30% to 70%. For medicinal materials containing volatile components, the proportion of rice wine in the moistening solution is set to 30% to 40%. For medicinal materials with hard texture and containing alcohol-soluble components, the proportion of rice wine in the moistening solution is set to 50% to 70%.

[0040] The alcohol concentration is set differently based on the characteristics of the medicinal materials. Since rice wine can stimulate the medicinal properties of some Chinese medicinal materials to a certain extent without affecting the medicinal properties of the materials themselves, an appropriate amount of rice wine can be added to the moistening solution. When rice wine accounts for 30% to 40% of the moistening solution, its mild penetrability can prevent high concentrations of rice wine from dissolving volatile oils and volatile components, reducing the loss of medicinal components, and softening loose medicinal materials. When rice wine accounts for 50% to 70% of the moistening solution, its strong penetrability can quickly soften dense medicinal materials and can specifically dissolve alcohol-soluble active ingredients, preventing the components from remaining in the medicinal material tissue and being unable to precipitate. At the same time, high concentrations of rice wine are highly volatile and easy to remove during subsequent drying, with no risk of residue.

[0041] In step S6, the target softened moisture content is calculated as a percentage of the dry weight of the medicinal materials, and the target weight gain rate ranges from 20% to 40% of the dry weight of the medicinal materials. The weighing sensor is integrated into the bottom of the moistening tank, and the control system automatically determines whether to proceed to step S7 or return to step S3 based on the real-time weight data.

[0042] The weight gain rate of medicinal materials directly reflects the amount of medicinal liquid absorbed. A weight gain rate of 20%-40% is the optimal range for softening medicinal materials. If it is below 20%, the medicinal liquid is not absorbed enough, resulting in a hard core inside the medicinal material, making the slices easy to break. If it is above 40%, the medicinal liquid is absorbed excessively, resulting in an overly soft surface of the medicinal material, making the slices easy to stick together and deform. The weighing sensor collects the weight of the medicinal materials in real time and transmits the data to the control system. The control system automatically calculates the weight gain rate. If it does not meet the standard, it automatically cycles through vacuum, spraying, and pressure holding processes. If it meets the standard, it automatically enters the next process, realizing fully automated closed-loop control.

[0043] Using the weight gain rate as the quantitative indicator of softening endpoint, it replaces human sensory judgment, eliminates human error, ensures consistent softening degree of each batch of medicinal materials, and improves the quality stability of processed medicinal slices; automated cyclic control eliminates the need for manual supervision, reduces labor costs, improves the level of intelligent processing, and is suitable for continuous industrial production; precise control of the amount of softening solution absorbed avoids insufficient or excessive softening, significantly improves the qualified rate of slices, and reduces raw material waste.

[0044] In step S7, the time for standing and moistening is 30 to 60 minutes; during the moistening process, the outer wall of the medicine pot is wrapped with a heat insulation layer to keep the temperature inside the pot between 20°C and 30°C.

[0045] Allow the herbs to stand and soak for 30-60 minutes, allowing the soaking solution to migrate from high-concentration areas to low-concentration areas under the influence of gravity and diffusion, eliminating uneven local soaking and ensuring uniform softening of the herbs. A constant temperature environment of 20-30℃ can prevent the soaking solution from becoming less fluid and slowing down the soaking process due to excessively low temperatures, and also prevent excessively high temperatures from accelerating the evaporation of the soaking solution, ensuring stable solvent distribution during the soaking process. The insulation layer maintains a constant temperature inside the container, unaffected by the external ambient temperature, ensuring consistent soaking results.

[0046] In step S8, the slicing process is carried out within 1 hour after softening to prevent the medicinal materials from hardening or softening and failing due to prolonged storage. The slicing thickness is set according to the type of medicinal material, ranging from 1mm to 5mm. Thin slices of 1-2mm are suitable for dense medicinal materials, while thick slices of 3-5mm are suitable for loose medicinal materials. The slicing tool is a low-temperature cooled tool with a built-in cooling circulation system to maintain a low temperature during the cutting process.

[0047] If softened medicinal materials are left for too long, the evaporation of the moistening solution will cause the materials to harden again. Slicing within 1 hour ensures that the materials are in the best softened state and that the cutting is smooth. Differentiated slice thicknesses meet the requirements of the decoction pieces specifications and are suitable for the medicinal needs and subsequent drying characteristics of different medicinal materials. Low-temperature cooling of the blades can reduce the heat generated by friction during the cutting process, avoid the decomposition of the effective components of the medicinal materials due to high temperatures, and prevent the blades from sticking to the materials, ensuring that the slices are flat, burr-free, and of uniform thickness.

[0048] In step S9, the frequency range of the ultrasonic-assisted process is 20kHz to 40kHz, and the power density is 0.5 W / cm² to 1.0W / cm²; the temperature range of the low-temperature heat source is 40℃ to 50℃; the drying method is vacuum low-temperature drying or heat pump dehumidification drying; the ultrasonic process adopts an intermittent working mode, working for 10 minutes and pausing for 5 minutes in a cycle.

[0049] Ultrasonic frequencies of 20kHz-40kHz can generate stable cavitation effects and micro-vibrations, disrupting the surface tension of moisture inside medicinal herbs and accelerating moisture migration to the surface. A power density of 0.5-1.0 W / cm² can enhance the drying effect without damaging the cell structure of medicinal herbs or causing loss of effective components due to excessive power. A low-temperature heat source of 40-50℃, far lower than the temperature of traditional hot air drying, avoids high temperature damage to heat-sensitive and volatile medicinal components. Vacuum low-temperature or heat pump dehumidification drying creates a low-humidity environment, which, combined with intermittent ultrasonic operation, avoids local overheating of medicinal herbs caused by continuous ultrasonic waves, while reducing energy consumption and allowing moisture and residual moistening liquid to evaporate slowly and completely.

[0050] Step S11, Solvent Recovery and Re-rinsing: During the drying process in step S9, the vapor of the moistening liquid emitted by the medicinal materials is discharged with the drying exhaust gas and liquefied by the condenser to obtain the moistening liquid recovery liquid. The content of effective components such as flavonoids and saponins in the recovery liquid is detected. If the content of effective components is higher than the preset threshold, it indicates that the recovery liquid contains a lot of medicinal materials dissolved in it. In step S4, the recovery liquid is preferentially used for moistening the next batch of medicinal materials, or it is sprayed back onto the surface of the current batch of medicinal materials in a proportional manner and re-adsorbed onto the medicinal materials during the drying process.

[0051] During the drying process, the humectant evaporates to form a gas, carrying with it a small amount of active ingredients dissolved from the medicinal materials. The humectant gas is condensed into a liquid recovery liquid by a condenser, thus achieving solvent recovery. The content of active ingredients in the recovery liquid is tested. If it is higher than a preset threshold, it indicates that the recovery liquid has medicinal value and can be reused for the next batch of humectant drying. This allows the active ingredients to re-permeate the medicinal materials or be leached back into the current batch of medicinal slices, preventing the active ingredients from being lost with the waste gas and achieving dual recovery of solvent and active ingredients.

[0052] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the details of the exemplary embodiments described above, and that the invention can be implemented in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics of the invention. Therefore, the embodiments should be considered in all respects as exemplary and non-limiting, and the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description. Thus, it is intended that all variations falling within the meaning and scope of equivalents of the claims be included within the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for processing sliced ​​medicinal materials, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: S1, Pre-treatment: Clean and wash the medicinal materials to be processed to remove impurities; S2, Filling and Replacement: The cleaned medicinal materials are placed into a vacuum moistening tank, and inert gas is introduced into the tank to replace the air, so that the oxygen content in the tank is reduced to below the preset safety threshold. S3, Vacuum Exhaust: Start the vacuum pump to evacuate the medicine-moistening tank and remove the air from the intercellular spaces of the medicinal materials; S4, metered spraying: Under vacuum conditions, a metered amount of moistening solution is sprayed into the moistening tank through an atomizing nozzle. The moistening solution penetrates into the medicinal material under the action of pressure difference. S5, Pressure-holding permeation: Maintain a vacuum state for a certain period of time to allow the soaking solution to fully permeate the medicinal materials; S6, Weight gain monitoring: The weight of the medicinal materials is monitored in real time by weighing sensors. If the weight gain rate of the medicinal materials does not reach the target softened moisture content, steps S3 to S5 are repeated until the target value is reached. S7, Humidification and Balancing: Slowly introduce inert gas into the container to atmospheric pressure, let it stand to humidify, so that the liquid inside the medicinal material is evenly distributed; S8, Slicing: Take out the softened medicinal materials and slice them to obtain medicinal material slices; S9, Ultrasonic Drying: The sliced ​​medicinal materials are placed in a drying device and dried using ultrasonic assistance combined with a low-temperature heat source; S10, Finished product collection: After drying until the moisture content meets the pharmacopoeia standard, the product is discharged and packaged.

2. The processing method of a sliced ​​medicinal material according to claim 1, characterized in that, In step S2, the inert gas is nitrogen; the preset safety threshold is an oxygen content volume fraction of less than 5%; in step S7, the inert gas introduced is also nitrogen.

3. The processing method of a sliced ​​medicinal material according to claim 1, characterized in that, In step S3, the vacuum degree of the vacuuming process is in the range of -0.08 MPa to -0.095 MPa; the pressure holding time is 10 minutes to 30 minutes; the vacuum exhaust process is carried out in stages, first vacuuming to -0.05 MPa and holding for 5 minutes, and then continuing to vacuum to the target vacuum degree.

4. The processing method of a sliced ​​medicinal material according to claim 1, characterized in that, In step S4, the atomizing nozzle is a high-pressure gas-assisted atomizing nozzle with a droplet size range of 50μm to 200μm; the wetting solution is injected in a pulsed manner.

5. The processing method of a sliced ​​medicinal material according to claim 1, characterized in that, In step S4, an appropriate amount of alcohol is added to the moistening solution according to the solubility characteristics of the active ingredients of the medicinal materials, with the proportion in the moistening solution ranging from 30% to 70%. For medicinal materials containing volatile components, the proportion of rice wine in the moistening solution is set to 30% to 40%. For medicinal materials with hard texture and containing alcohol-soluble components, the proportion of rice wine in the moistening solution is set to 50% to 70%.

6. The processing method of a sliced ​​medicinal material according to claim 1, characterized in that, In step S6, the target softened moisture content is calculated as a percentage of the dry weight of the medicinal material, and the target weight gain rate ranges from 20% to 40% of the dry weight of the medicinal material; the weighing sensor is integrated into the bottom of the moistening tank, and the control system automatically determines whether to proceed to step S7 or return to step S3 based on the real-time weight data.

7. The processing method of a sliced ​​medicinal material according to claim 1, characterized in that, In step S7, the time for standing and moistening is 30 to 60 minutes; during the moistening process, the outer wall of the medicine pot is wrapped with a heat insulation layer to keep the temperature inside the pot between 20°C and 30°C.

8. The processing method of a sliced ​​medicinal material according to claim 1, characterized in that, In step S8, the slicing process is carried out within 1 hour after softening; the slice thickness is set according to the type of medicinal material, ranging from 1 mm to 5 mm; and the slicing blade is a low-temperature cooled blade.

9. A method for processing sliced ​​medicinal materials according to claim 1, characterized in that, In step S9, the frequency range of the ultrasonic-assisted drying is 20kHz to 40kHz, and the power density is 0.5 W / cm² to 1.0 W / cm²; the temperature range of the low-temperature heat source is 40℃ to 50℃; the drying method is vacuum low-temperature drying or heat pump dehumidification drying, and the ultrasonic waves operate in an intermittent mode.

10. A method for processing sliced ​​medicinal materials according to claim 1, characterized in that, It also includes step S11, solvent recovery and back rinsing: during the drying process in step S9, the volatilized liquid gas is recovered by a condenser to obtain a recovered liquid; the content of effective components in the recovered liquid is detected, and if the content of effective components is higher than a preset threshold, the recovered liquid is preferentially used in step S4 for the next batch of medicinal materials to moisten the medicine, or sprayed back onto the surface of the current batch of medicinal materials in proportion.

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