Processing (simplified Chinese: 炮制; traditional Chinese: 炮製; pinyin: páozhì, or Chinese: 炮炙; pinyin: páozhì) in Chinese materia medica (Chinese herbology) is the technique of altering the properties, sterilizing and removing poisons of crude medicines by processing using heat and combination with various materials in a kind of alchemical approach to preparation. It lacks scientific evidence and hence is considered as pseudoscientific.