Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 68 Penicillin Plus Pills
After talking to Wang Daoqiu, Tao Zhongwen became his first Taoist brother.As soon as Tao Zhongwen left, Wang Daoqiu went to discuss science with the three "treasures".

It is still too early to say what kind of chemical industry system the Ming Dynasty will establish in this poor small-scale peasant economy.So Wang Daoqiu chose the starting point of the discussion to be Taoism's medical science.

The main reason why Taoism is not as annoying as Buddhism is that Taoism has the ability to support itself, which is to treat people. There are nine doctors out of ten Taoists. This is no joke.

Precisely because the monks have no ability to make offerings to themselves, merit boxes are placed in conspicuous places in every Buddhist temple to remind you to pay.Most Taoist priests are doctors. They can support themselves with their medical skills, so there are rarely merit boxes in Taoist temples.

This is also the case in later generations. Although the tickets for Wudang Mountain are more expensive than those for Shaolin Temple.But people basically complain about Shaolin Temple, and few people complain about Wudang Mountain.After all, compared to Wudang Mountain, Shaolin Temple's outstretched hands are really shameless.

Medicine is the foundation for a Taoist family to live and work, just like Sha Zhu's ancestral Tan family cuisine seasoning recipe, which is passed down from generation to generation and not from generation to generation.So when Wang Daoqiu first approached Lin Gang, Hong Junjie, and Zhang Liangwei, three top alchemists from the Daoist sect, to discuss this issue, these three people were very strict in their mouths, and they all deliberately avoided those from other Daoist sects. The secret that is not told.

The three people are strict with each other, and Wang Daoqiu also has a way to deal with them. When professionals encounter professional problems and don't understand them, it's like Cong Cong meeting her favorite Internet celebrity. How can she sleep without getting to know her deeply?
So next, I faced three professionals in alchemy and pharmaceuticals. Wang Daoqiu used a set of modern Western medicine theories, combined with the future Chinese medicine of Li Shizhen, who is still a doctor in his hometown in Hubei, to create a combination of Chinese and Western medicine.

A combination of punches stunned the three professionals.Unconsciously, they discussed with Wang Daoqiu some of their own experiences and confusions in the process of refining elixirs.

To be honest, Wang Daoqiu basically pretended to understand the formulas and pharmacology they reported, but in fact he didn't understand anything.But after listening to the medicinal materials they reported, Wang Daoqiu finally understood why later generations of Chinese medicine doctors were considered to be like buying lottery tickets, where they paid an IQ tax.

Just listen to the medicinal herbs that pop out of their mouths: bezoar, musk, ambergris, ginseng, rhino horn, tiger bone, pangolin...Ma De, in later generations, apart from ginseng and bezoar, which of these medicinal materials have not been banned long ago?

And in later generations, ginseng, like many Chinese herbal medicines, was planted in the ground and grown with chemical fertilizers. It was full of chemical ingredients, and there were no medicinal ingredients!There is also the bezoar, the bezoar used in later generations of traditional Chinese medicine. It can be said that all of them are artificially synthesized and full of high technology.The Eight Classics of Zhenger said that the bezoars of later generations cannot be regarded as traditional Chinese medicine at all, but should be regarded as a chemical synthesis agent.

Why do you pay IQ tax to see Chinese medicine in later generations?Just think about those traditional Chinese medicinal materials. Most of the animal medicinal materials are banned in the name of protecting wild animals.Most of those Chinese herbal medicines are the crystallization of chemical fertilizers like cabbage and radish.

Therefore, in later generations, except for those barefoot doctors in remote villages who go to the mountains to collect medicines themselves, the little folk remedies passed down from generation to generation may be able to cure certain diseases.There are other Chinese medicine hospitals and veteran Chinese doctors in big cities. If you take their medicine, you are paying IQ tax.After all, even if their prescription is correct, do they have the real Chinese herbal medicine for you?

In short, for later generations of Chinese medicine, it is not a question of whether the prescription is correct, but that it simply has no medicinal materials.

Of course, most animal medicinal materials are banned, and most medicinal herbs are crystallized chemical fertilizers. This is for future generations.In the Ming Dynasty in the [-]th century, the Chinese medicinal materials now are all pure and natural, integrating the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the essence of the sun and the moon, and are real medicinal materials that have nothing to do with chemical fertilizers.

Wang Daoqiu understood clearly when Lin Gang, Hong Junjie, and Zhang Liangwei, three professionals with more than 30 years of experience in alchemy and pharmaceuticals, talked about the advantages and disadvantages of those traditional Chinese medicine formulas without reservation.In fact, the biggest weakness of traditional Chinese medicine is its poor bactericidal effect.Therefore, in clinical practice, it has shown that it is useful for some people and useless for some people. Its performance is extremely unstable, which also makes doctors of this era puzzled.

Doctors in the sixteenth century did not understand why Chinese medicine was so unstable, but Wang Daoqiu did.To put it bluntly, the reason for this is that the bactericidal effect of traditional Chinese medicine is too poor. If the patient's own health is good, or his own disease is not viral, then Chinese medicine will be useful.On the contrary, no matter how many Chinese medicines the patient takes, it will be useless.

Traditional Chinese medicine has a weak bactericidal ability, which makes its clinical manifestations very unstable.And as long as the shortcomings in sterilization are made up, won't traditional Chinese medicine absolutely defeat all existing medical factions around the world?
Thinking of the bactericidal effect, Wang Daoqiu immediately thought of penicillin.As an antibiotic, penicillin's bactericidal effect has withstood the test of history.Moreover, the refining process of penicillin was also something that could be accomplished at the technological level of the [-]th century.Since I came into contact with these Taoist priests, I have wanted to guide their profession to the right path of promoting scientific development and human happiness.Wang Daoqiu considered the medical aspect, and for this purpose he specifically checked the medical progress in modern times in the world, the focus of which was penicillin.

According to relevant records in the library, penicillin is present in the cyanogenic mold that molds pasta such as steamed buns and noodles.To collect penicillin, we can first scrape the penicillium from the moldy steamed bun noodles.

Then put these penicilliums into a culture medium mixed with juice made from rice grinding and boiled taro juice, and cultivate it for seven days.After enough Penicillium has been cultured, filter the culture solution with cotton filter.After filtering, rapeseed oil is added to dissolve the fat-soluble substances. In this way, the filtered liquid after adding rapeseed oil will be divided into three layers. The top layer is rapeseed oil, the middle layer is darker liquid, and the last layer is rapeseed oil. The next layer is water.

Because penicillin is soluble in water, the bottom layer of the filtrate is water containing penicillin.In this way, this layer of water is taken out, and then boiled and sterilized charcoal powder is used to stir and absorb the water. Finally, acidic water made from vinegar and alkaline water made from boiled seaweed juice are injected in sequence, so that penicillin can be diluted.

Of course, the concentration of penicillin diluted in this way is only about [-] units, and it is not suitable for large-scale production.But so what?If you add some penicillin to the Taoist pills, wouldn't this achieve the effect of taking antibiotics by mouth?With the drug resistance of people in this era, the effect of [-] units of antibiotics is still manageable!

Wang Daoqiu is also happy to think that traditional Chinese medicine can make up for the shortcomings of sterilization, become popular among people, and dominate the world.So he said to Lin Gang, Zhang Liangwei, and Hong Junjie: "Three Taoist brothers, in fact, the reason why your medicine is so unstable is that the same medicine for the same disease is effective for some people, but not for others. It’s useless, that’s because your medicines are all missing the crucial drug introduction.”

"What? Our medicine is missing a medicinal ingredient? Fellow Taoist, can you tell us which medicinal ingredient is missing from our medicine?"

Hearing Wang Daoqiu say that their medicine was missing an ingredient, Zhang Liangwei, the oldest of the three, asked Wang Daoqiu with a confused look on his face.

Wang Daoqiu couldn't explain the pharmacology of penicillin to them, so he said: "Three Taoist brothers, after the steamed buns become moldy, there will be a green mildew stain on the surface. This kind of mold should be seen by all three Taoist brothers. Did you pass?"

"I've seen it before! What's wrong?"

"Fellow Taoist, you're not saying that the mildew is the medicine primer we lack, are you?"

"What's the possibility? People will get sick if they eat moldy things. How could that thing be a medicine primer?"

…………

As soon as Wang Daoqiu finished speaking, Lin Gang, Hong Junjie, and Zhang Liangwei began to discuss.However, they all believed that the mildew stain could not be the source of the medicine.

To refute their knowledge, Wang Daoqiu only cited the example of snake venom and told them to shut up.Then they expressed their desire to explore, and next they would cultivate some Penicillium.

(End of this chapter)