Section 132: Products of the Pharmaceutical Factory
Chapter 132 Products from pharmaceutical factories
While Huang Dashan was trial-producing sweet potato kvass, Shi Niaoren was washing bottles in the pharmaceutical factory. The glass bottles that had been applied to the Planning Commission for a long time were all shipped this time. Most of them were produced by glass factories, and some were recycled and sterilized.
Thousands of bottles, large and small, were placed in rattan baskets, filling the courtyard of the pharmaceutical factory. The sizes of the bottles ranged from 500ml for physiological saline to small medicine bottles.
So the entire pharmaceutical factory spent most of the day cleaning the bottles. The cleaned bottles were pushed into the steam room for high-temperature steam sterilization - this is currently the most effective large-scale sterilization method in the pharmaceutical factory.
With these bottles, the pharmaceutical factory can officially produce finished products - otherwise there will be no place to store the products. Zhao Yanmei set up a distillation room with all-glass equipment. In addition to distilling medical distilled water, it is also used to produce Chinese herbal extracts.
For use as injection solution.
Shi Niaoren stared at this set of distillation facilities that were not too complicated but were very large in size. He was amazed that the level of the glass factory had improved rapidly. Such a complex shape, a large number of thick and thin pipes, multiple passes, valves, and alcohol for heating.
The lamp was flickering with a faint blue flame, and the evaporating dish was filled with many yellow and white plant flowers. The liquid was bubbling slightly. The steam passed through the pipe, passed through the condenser of the serpentine glass tube, and finally dropped into the collection bottle drop by drop.
The whole scene looks very strange. It's not science fiction or fantasy, but more like a mad scientist's underground laboratory in a low-budget movie.
"What is this doing?"
"What is distilled and extracted is honeysuckle, a heatstroke prevention medicine, specially designed to treat summer heat and colds. Liu San said that you can use this as a base solution to make Shuanghuanglian preparations." Hu Yicheng is in charge of the distillation room today. There is no need to go to the underground bacterial culture room for cultivation. He is in a good mood.
Rather pleasant.
"Is this safe or not?" he muttered. The ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine injections are unknown and have many impurities. If they are injected into the human body, there is no way to rescue them in the event of an allergic reaction.
Hu Yicheng saw what he was thinking, "It is a concentrated liquid for oral use. If you eat it, you will get diarrhea at most, but it will never kill you."
"I'm just worried because I feel anxious." Shi Niaoren sighed.
"After distilling this batch, we are going to make Bupleurum injection. It is less difficult. Liu San dried a lot of it in the yard. It is very effective for colds caused by summer heat."
"But this equipment is a little less efficient."
Liu San walked out: "I have ordered another set. It will be made in the glass factory. This time, I am going to use steam heating. It is much more efficient than burning alcohol lamps, and the temperature is easy to control. Minister, come to my room.
Sit down."
As he spoke, he took him into his traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy workshop.
This workshop is actually a large room of about 100 square meters with high ceilings. A row of earthen pots on the stove are simmering traditional Chinese medicine. On the operating table, there are guillotines for cutting medicine and grinding machines of various materials.
Bowls, small sixteen-liang scales specially used for traditional Chinese medicine... all kinds of equipment that Shi Niaoren has never seen before are piled everywhere. Some of them were brought by Liu San himself, and some were customized here.
Shi Niaoren sniffed the smell of medicine in the air, found a stool and sat down.
"These are some medicines I prepared myself." Liu San showed him the row of paper boxes and small porcelain bottles on the table with great interest.
"This is Zhixue Powder," Liu San picked up a small porcelain bottle, "made from thistle. It has the function of cooling blood and stopping bleeding. It is used for hemorrhage caused by blood heat, such as vomiting blood, epistaxis, metrorrhagia, hematuria, etc.
; Disperse blood stasis, detoxify and eliminate carbuncle: used for heat-toxic carbuncle, taken internally or externally..."
"Okay, okay, don't memorize your Chinese medicine book." Shi Niaoren glanced at it suspiciously. He knew that traditional Chinese medicine has its characteristics. Almost every medicinal material can list a lot of "for certain".
"A certain symptom is effective", in fact, rarely can it really play a key role, "Does it work?"
"Of course it works. If you have bleeding in the field, you can immediately boil thistle in water and take it orally. It will take effect immediately. You can also stop bleeding by crushing it and applying it externally."
Shi Niaoren thought that there might be some ingredients in this that could reduce the blood clotting time, but he could organize research on it - the demand for hemostatic drugs in future military battles would not be small.
"Also: Tincture soaked in ethanol can lower blood pressure and inhibit human Mycobacterium tuberculosis."
"sounds good."
"This is a gastritis pill, used to treat stomach pain, pantothenic acid, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer. The main ingredient is cuttlefish bone. I got it from a seafood processing factory. It can also be used as a hemostatic medicine and is very effective in treating knife wounds.
.
"This is a pig gallbladder pill." Liu San said, "It is used to treat many things, but I know you, Dean, are not interested in these. But there is one purpose that you will definitely find useful."
"Oh? What."
"Anti-cough." Liu San said, "The anti-cough effect of pig gall powder has been pharmacologically tested. It can also cure night blindness."
"Opium tincture." Liu San took out another bottle with a danger mark on it. "It can be used to relieve coughs, diarrhea, and pain."
“What about addiction?”
Liu San spread his hands: "It's hard to say, we have to do animal experiments. However, Dean Zhao, Xiao Hu, I have studied it, and we have also read medical books, and we have done it exactly according to the requirements of the pharmacopoeia. It will not be too harmful.
It’s big, just control the use.”
"Don't make it into a universal medicine." Shi Niaoren instructed, "Divide it into three varieties. Antidiarrheal and painkillers are best made into tablets - easy to take, and cough medicines are made into syrups. No matter what kind of medicine,
While ensuring the efficacy, the opium ingredients should be kept as low as possible to avoid addiction."
Although opium addiction is not as severe as modern hard drugs, detoxification is also very troublesome.
"Okay, let's change the recipe." Liu San jotted down his request. He took out a small wooden box and opened it mysteriously: "Doctor Shi, would you like to try it?"
Shi Niaoren took a look and saw a kind of semi-withered leaves in the box, rolled into balls.
"Betel nut?" He picked up one and stuffed it into his mouth. It was very bitter.
"This is the coca leaf."
"Well..." Shi Niaoren almost vomited on the spot.
"Don't worry, you won't be addicted." Liu San smiled narrowly, "Or at best, it's as addictive as betel nut."
Shi Xiaoren certainly knew that in South America, chewing coca leaves can be regarded as a "national habit". The Indians not only refresh the mind, eliminate fatigue, and increase strength; they are also used to keep out the cold, cure diseases, and relieve stomach cramps and rheumatism.
, discomfort caused by headaches, etc. It is a popular pastime.
"These are the leaves picked from the coca trees on the farm. The trees are too small, so only a small amount is picked. Each person shares a little." Liu San said, "In the future, we can pick in large quantities when the yield increases."
"What's the point of asking for this?"
"Coca leaves can also be used to make medicine." Liu San said, "Wouldn't it be better to use this instead of cigarettes and give it to the army and workers as a recreational product?"
"This--" Shi Niaoren thought that this was too awesome. However, coca leaves do have a strong energizing effect and are indeed useful to the army and laborers. "Isn't it a bit too much?"
After all, coca leaf is also a soft drug. Although it is not highly addictive.
"Amphetamine was prepared by the Yankees for the soldiers of World War III. People are more common than us. Coca leaves are not as toxic as amphetamine." As he spoke, he took out another bottle from behind him.
He poured a full cup of dark drink for Shi Niaoren, "Drink and see."
"What is this?" Shi Niaoren suddenly became alert.
"Cola."
"Coke? This thing is so rare nowadays." Shi Niaoren looked at it doubtfully and took a sip. It really tasted like Coke, a little sweeter, but it had no gas - like a Coke that had run out of gas after being released for a long time.
"Are you worthy of yourselves?"
"Yes, coca leaf distillate is added to it." Seeing that Shi Niaoren was about to have an attack, Liu San quickly added, "It's very little. It can almost be ignored. As long as we have baking soda, we can start producing cola.
.”
It’s really strange: Shi Niaoren thought to himself that the soda didn’t work, but Kvass and Coke came out. He decided not to get entangled anymore, lest there would be something weird that wanted him to be a guinea pig. Question:
"How did the willow bark extraction thing I mentioned last time go?"
Willow bark has been an antipyretic and analgesic commonly used in Europe and Asia since ancient times. The active ingredient is salicylic acid. The modern drug aspirin was born based on the analysis of this drug.
Aspirin is chemically synthesized, and it is still early for the time traveler's level of chemical engineering, but it is not difficult to extract the active ingredients from willow bark, and it can also play a certain role.
"I'm working on it, and I've extracted some. But there aren't many willow trees here," Liu San said.
"We can ask Wu Nanhai to plant more by the river. It can be used as a decoration for the scenery and as a raw material." Shi Niaoren knew that willow bark and leaves contain very few effective medicinal ingredients, and the effect of extraction is also limited, but
Aspirin is a very useful analgesic and antipyretic, and it also has anticoagulant and antirheumatic effects. It is the best all-purpose drug at this stage.
Liu San said: "I have a request, and I hope the minister will go to the executive committee to talk about it."
"Oh, what do you want?"
"Acquiring a herbal medicine store in the county."
"Runshitang?" Shi Niaoren knew that Liu San often went to this pharmacy to buy medicines, process medicinal materials and so on, and he had a pleasant cooperation with the other party. "Don't you guys work well together?"
"Shopkeeper Yang's idea is pretty good, and it's reliable to entrust them with the work. But I'm not the boss, so I can't make the decision on many things. It's a waste of a few professionals inside." He poured himself a cup of "Coke", "Also, the herbal medicine shop
The company's foundation is too weak. It can't even go to the medicine market, and it never buys precious medicinal materials. As a partner, it is too weak. It has to be given a blood transfusion. I originally wanted to inject capital into it myself, but I have no money..."
"Let the executive committee purchase it, and then you become the shopkeeper?"
"I don't want to be a shopkeeper - just be the boss and teach them what to do. Shopkeeper Yang here doesn't know much, but he is eager to learn. He is a talent that can be made."