Stir-frying with earth

Tossing (medicinal materials) with oven earth (Terra Flava Usta, 伏龙肝 fú lóng gān) in a wok over a flame. Stir-frying with earth makes use of the acridity and warmth of oven earth to warm the center and check both bleeding and vomiting. Materials fried with it have a stronger capacity to supplement the spleen, harmonize the stomach, and check vomiting and diarrhea. Modern biomedical research shows that oven earth, due to its long exposure to high temperatures, contains zinc oxide and little water or organic matter, and being slightly alkaline it reduces stomach acidity. Ovate atractylodes (Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma, 白朮 bái zhú) and dioscorea (Dioscoreae Rhizoma, 山药 shān yào) may be treated in this way.