Processing: Some Tibetan materia medica can be prepared in the presence of another crude drug or subsidiary materials so that the toxicity or side effects can be lessened. Mercury can be prepared this way.

Processing Method for Some Commonly Used Materia Medica
Fructus Terminalia Chebula: Discard the rotten part. When preparing edema paste, the nucleus should be removed.
Paste of Fructus Hypophae: Put mature fruits in a porcelain or iron pot and boil until well done. Filter and concentrate the filtrate to a non-stickycondition after cooling down.

Ephedra paste: Rinse ephedra and cut into short segments. Put it in a pot and add an adequate amount of water. Cook for one hour and filter.Concentrate the filtrate to paste and cool it down.

Vulture dung: Put the dung in water and stir frequently. Filter and then discard the residue. Let it stand for 24 hours. Discard the fluid and dry the precipitate under the sun. Then, fry it in a pot.
Semen Caesaipinia: Fry the seeds in sand until hot and then peel off its outer skin.
Cinnabar: Put the coarse particles in an iron pot and fry until deepred.

Black borneol: Obtain the dung of a wild pig and put it under the sun to dry. Then, put it in a porcelain pot, sealing the edges with mud with some salt. Burn it with a strong fire until the outer wall becomes gray in color. After cooling, the bright black charcoal is ready for use.

Folium Rhododendron: Take the leaves and an equal amount of Ramulus Clematis Montana and put them into a porcelain pot; forge with indirect fire by the same process as for black borneol.

Garlic: (a) Garlic powder -- put dry garlic in a porcelain container, tightly covering and sealing with mud. Heat until the bottom of the container becomes white. Cool down, and then take out the black and bright garlic powder and grind it into fine powder. (b) For otitis media -- take off the skin and squeeze the juice.

Pound limestone to fragments like a thumb and put it on an anthracite fire; burn and forge to a white color. Then, put it in an earthen pot. For stomach diseases, add wine made of highland barley; for other diseases, add milk or water and cover tightly, and it is ready for use.