Should it be soaked in warm water before decoction of Chinese herbal medicine?

Decoction of traditional Chinese medicine is to extract the active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine from the solids of plants, animals and minerals, and dissolve them in the medicinal juice. The purpose of soaking in water before decoction is to help as many ingredients as possible to dissolve in the water.
Most Chinese medicinal materials are dry tissues, the cells are dry and shrunken, and the active ingredients exist in the cells as precipitation or crystals. The Chinese medicinal materials will become soft, the cells will begin to swell, the gap between the cell membranes will become larger, and the water will easily enter the medicinal tissue, and the components will dissolve in the water to form a high-concentration drug solution in the tissue. The medicinal solution will gradually diffuse out of the tissue, and the active ingredient will dissolve in the water.
Some medicinal materials contain starch and protein. Immediate decocting without soaking will lead to starch gelatinization and protein coagulation, blocking the capillary channels on the surface of medicinal materials. Water cannot enter, and the active ingredients cannot be dissolved.
After soaking, the cooking time can be saved. After reaching the boiling point, it usually takes 20 to 30 minutes.
The water temperature should be 25-50℃, the soaking time should be controlled within 30-90 minutes, and the time can be appropriately extended or shortened according to the changes in winter and summer, so as to achieve complete soaking. Or it depends on the nature of Chinese medicinal materials. Generally, traditional Chinese medicines with flowers, grass, leaves and stems should be soaked for 30 minutes, and traditional Chinese medicines with roots, rhizomes, fruits, animal organs and minerals should be soaked for 60 to 90 minutes.
The amount of water to be soaked should be 1-2 cm above the surface of the medicinal material.
Some medicines that require special treatment, such as musk, donkey-hide gelatin, etc., should not be soaked.