Li Mengxi is not good at chemistry, and he does not have the keen insight to detect the abnormality here.

Xiao Zhuan saw that the medicinal powder in the bowl was missing, and he asked, "Brother, why is it there?"

Li Mengxi carefully stirred the kuaizi in the bowl, and he casually replied, "It's dissolved."

Xiao Zhuan asked curiously, "What is dissolution?"

"Dissolution," Li Mengxi scratched his head, frowned and thought, "It means that one thing dissolves into another.

For example, when we extract medicinal powder, we use the solubility of the drug..."

At this point, Li Mengxi stopped.

He felt vaguely that something was wrong.

He stared blankly at the little white vinegar in the bowl. There was originally a lot of medicinal powder in the bowl, but as soon as the white vinegar was poured in, the medicinal powder disappeared.

This seems to be a normal dissolution phenomenon, such as saccharide dissolving in water, or washing powder dissolving in water.

However, when extracting medicine from willow branches before, acids, alkalis, oils, alcohol, and other things were used. As a result, only alkaline water and clean water were able to extract the substances.

In other words, the medicinal powder in willow is not soluble in acetic acid at all.

Since it is insoluble, it shouldn't be. After pouring white vinegar on the medicinal powder, the medicinal powder disappeared immediately.

For insoluble powder, pour some insoluble liquid. Normally, if you imagine, the white powder should have been sinking to the bottom of the bowl and will not disappear at all.

Abnormal.

Li Mengxi was extremely puzzled. Since the medicinal powder was insoluble, why was it missing?

He was puzzled. After a long time, he suddenly thought that there might be a reaction between the medicinal powder and the white vinegar, so that the medicine decomposed.

To verify this guess, Li Mengxi immediately lit a fire and put white vinegar on the fire and burned it for a while.

After a while, the vinegar dried up, and as a result, there was nothing left in the bowl.

Li Mengxi was surprised again. It shouldn't be. There were several tablespoons of medicinal powder in the bowl. However, after adding vinegar, adding vinegar and boiling again, there was no medicinal powder left, nothing left.

This is wrong. If it is pure water, the medicinal powder is added to the pure water, the medicinal powder is dissolved into the pure water, and then the water with the medicinal powder added is heated over a fire. After the water is boiled dry, the medicinal powder will precipitate again.

As a result, after adding vinegar, the medicinal powder will not separate out.

The answer is obvious. After adding white vinegar to the medicinal powder, the properties of the medicine changed and turned into something else.

Li Mengxi realized that willow extract cannot be exposed to acid, as it will be denatured when exposed to acid.

But then, Li Mengxi suddenly remembered something. If people are afraid of acid, then they also have gastric acid in their stomachs. But why, after the patients took the medicinal powder, the medicine still worked after they swallowed it and encountered gastric acid.

.

Li Mengxi frowned, and he was at a loss.

Could it be that if acid is added to the medicinal powder, although its properties have changed, it is still effective.

But, why, why the properties have changed, but the efficacy of the medicine is still there, it is simply unreasonable.

Li Mengxi, who was not sure why, made a bold move. He gathered the remaining medicinal powder together, added half a bowl of white vinegar, and then stirred for a while.

After serving the white vinegar dissolved in medicinal powder, Li Mengxi found Tian Bu again. He told Tian Bu that he could find another group of patients and feed each one a spoonful or two of vinegar to see what the effect would be tomorrow.

——

Another day passes.

Early in the morning on the fourth day, Tian Bu arrived and reported on the test situation.

"Military advisor, there were twenty patients. After taking vinegar, eighty of them recovered in one day.

...Well, vinegar is better than medicinal powder?" Tian Bu looked puzzled, "Military advisor, why is vinegar as white as water?"

Li Mengxi did not answer Tian Bu immediately. He frowned and thought, (Sure enough... the medicinal powder was dissolved into white vinegar and it had the same medicinal effect. Tian Bu said that the medicinal effect was even stronger...)

At first reaction, Li Mengxi felt that it was purely accidental. There were only twenty patients. The sample was too small and unconvincing.

But then I thought about it deeply, what if, what if it was true, what if it was true that after the medicinal powder was dissolved into the vinegar, the efficacy of the medicine was really stronger.

Li Mengxi's eyes lit up, and he felt the need to try again.

The medicinal powder has been used up. There is no need to use it.

Later, Li Mengxi sent the cavalry again and asked the cavalry to collect willow and poplar branches.

An hour or two later, a large number of branches were transported back.

After another hour, a large amount of bark was processed.

In the next half day, a large number of people were gathered, more than two hundred jars were set up, and the brewing and extraction began.

By nightfall, the medicine was extracted, and two bowls of powder were obtained.

After weighing the medicinal powder, divide it into two parts accurately, one part is medicinal powder, and the other part is dissolved with white vinegar.

One part of medicinal powder, divided into hundred parts, one part of white vinegar, also divided into one hundred equal parts.

This means that whether it is powdered medicine or white vinegar, each serving has the same amount of medicine.

Tian Bu and other military doctors checked the patients overnight and carefully selected two hundred cold patients. Then, one hundred were placed in the east of the city and one hundred were placed in the west.

Overnight, Tian Bu took the medicine and divided it into the east and west parts.

One hundred people in the east, each person takes a portion of the powder.

One hundred people in the West, each person drank a portion of white vinegar.

When Tian Bu finished all this work, it was already midnight.

That night, all the military doctors did not sleep, Li Mengxi did not sleep, Li Mengxi did not sleep, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Jian Yong also stayed up.

After waiting all night and until dawn, military doctor Tian Bu immediately went to investigate.

After the east and west departments completed their investigation, Tian Bu rushed to the city lord's mansion to report.

"Military advisor, out of 100 people in Dongcheng who took the medicine, 10 out of 20 recovered, and most of the remaining symptoms were relieved."

"Of the 100 people in Xicheng who took vinegar, 35 out of 30 recovered, and most of the remaining symptoms were alleviated."

A hundred people took the medicinal powder and recovered 20% of the disease overnight. They took the medicinal powder dissolved in white vinegar and recovered 35% of the disease overnight.

The contrast seems obvious.

Li Mengxi pondered for a moment, "He told Tian Bu to get the medicine again, distribute it to everyone, and report again at noon and at night."

Tian Bu took the order and left.

In the middle of the day, Tian Di came again and reported that a hundred people took the medicine and eight out of twenty were cured.

One hundred people took white vinegar, and six out of forty recovered.

In the evening, Tian Bu came for the third time to report, and the report was good. Thirty-five of the 100 people who took the medicine were cured, and 68 of those who took the white vinegar were cured.

At this point, the data comparison is so obvious.

Nearly 70% of the people who took white vinegar were cured, while less than 40% of those who took the medicinal powder were cured.

Samples of as many as a hundred people have occasionally dropped to a sufficiently low level.

If there are only ten patients, these ten patients may happen to be strong and recover quickly. It is possible.

However, when it comes to one hundred people versus one hundred people, the probability that one hundred people happen to be much stronger than another hundred people is almost non-existent.

Then, there is only one possibility left.

It's true that after the medicinal powder is dissolved with vinegar, it's really more effective.

Tian Bu's guess at the time turned out to be true.

One question has been answered. The medicinal powder extracted from the willow tree can really enhance the efficacy of the medicine after being dissolved.

This question was answered, but then, new questions emerged.

Why, after the medicinal powder is turned into vinegar, the medicinal properties will be enhanced.

Li Mengxi thought hard and couldn't figure it out.

Li Mengxi asked everyone, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Jian Yong, "Why is this? If the medicinal powder is soaked in vinegar, the efficacy of the medicine will be greatly enhanced. It's strange!"

Liu Bei had no solution.

Jian Yong has no solution.

Guan Yu thought for a moment and replied, "Is it cooked by adding vinegar?"

Li Mengxi was stunned for a moment, looked at Guan Yu in surprise for a long time, and then smiled.

Yes, now that you are familiar with it, this explanation makes some sense.

After adding vinegar to the medicinal powder, it may become easier to absorb, so the medicinal effect will be exerted faster.

Then the question is, although there is gastric acid in the human stomach, why does the medicine not work well if it is taken directly as a powder? The problem lies here - digestion has a time limit.

There is indeed gastric acid in the stomach, and gastric acid seems to be a little more acidic than white vinegar. However, once the medicinal powder reaches the stomach, it does not wait for it to be completely dissolved before it enters the next step of the digestion process.

That is, the problem of absorption efficiency.
To be continued...