While vinegar-making may be as old as alcoholic brewing, the first documented evidence of vinegar-making and use was by the ancient Babylonians around 3000 BC.

They primarily made vinegar from dates, figs, and beer and used it for both culinary and medicinal purposes. Traces of it also have been found in Egyptian urns. In East Asia, the Chinese began professionalizing vinegar production in the Zhou dynasty.

Based on TCM, vinegar can be used to:

1. stops bleeding (hemostatic)
2. disperses blood and qi stagnation
3. detoxifies
4. promotes digestion

Preparation methods of vinegar are as a seasoning, diluted in water, and as a decoction.

Vinegar contains acetic acid, acetal, oxalic acid, acetaldehyde, minerals, acids, and alcohols of higher quality.

Some indications that can be reduced by vinegar are:

 * Blood stasis: pain in the abdomen, palpable hardness in the abdomen.

 * Qi and blood stasis: digestive obstruction caused by too much fatty, oily food, meat, and fish.

 * Bleeding: nosebleeds, bloody stool, bloody sputum.