so this is the raw herbs that our chinese medicine doctor prescribed chris. i let it sit in water for an hour. then, boiled it for 10 minutes and drained the liquid. she advised us to do it a second time combining the second batch of liquid with the first. chris had to drink all of the tea that day. he had to repeat this for 4 more days but was suppose to drink each round of liquid over the course of 2 days instead of all within the same day. yikes, this stuff made the house smell like dirt, the woods!! which essentially, i guess it was just that..except maybe not the dirt part.....me being curiouso about all things natural, i dug thru it to see what was in there: cross sections of roots, dried leaves, twiggy type things, furry pods, tiny seeds, mushroomy cube pieces. the earth works. with all if it's funky glory that "tea" did the trick. he was definitely feeling much better and on the mend the next day. kudos to chris for being able to drink that stuff, diem said she doesn't typically prescribe the raw version because not that many people can get it down, but because of it being in liquid form vs. the powder it's a stronger version with quicker healing capabilities.