In traditional Chinese medicine, some herbs are used after toasting or roasting. The process is called "Zhi Tan" in Chinese, which means charring, and the herbs after the treatment is called carbon medicine. Carbon medicine is widely used to arrest bleeding in traditional Chinese medicine. The paper introduces the records, development and applications of carbon medicine in ancient China. The earliest record found about carbon medicine was in the remains of Han dynasty (BC206-A.D.8). The paper also introduces the process of charring herbs and mechanism of carbon medicine in arresting bleeding. Calcium iron and tan released during the charring are believed as main factors for arresting bleeding, helped with porous surface structure of active carbon.

• Hongyan Yang(School of Material Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University)
• Zengxiang Fu(Faculty of Life Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University)
• Xingli Huang(School of Material Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University)
• Binrui Ma(School of Material Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University)