https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/A4PeQB2Vq1CW8xtc-5KQOA
Welcome everyone to share your experiences with the herbs in the replies, to facilitate other students’ searching and learning.
Wild-Cultivated Ginseng
- Wild-Cultivated Ginseng
Wild-cultivated ginseng should be put at the forefront and tasted together with garden ginseng and American ginseng. I missed this at the time, but it’s not a big issue; you should still be able to distinguish the differences. The flavor of wild-cultivated ginseng is a bit lighter, but even when steeped for the third time, the flavor remains the same and the energy doesn’t diminish. Usually, it takes about 5-6 steepings to gradually lose the flavor; garden ginseng’s flavor fades a lot by the second steeping.
The main distribution center for ginseng is the Qinghe market in Tonghua City, Jilin Province. Many wild-cultivated ginseng transactions are also completed here. There are many slang terms in the Northeast, such as seed goods, flying seed, mountain goods… These are like the jargon in the underworld of the trade. If you don’t know these terms, you’ll be taken advantage of by ginseng merchants. Sometimes they deliberately misuse terms just to test those who pretend to know.
Currently, there are two phenomena: one is selling high-aged wild-cultivated ginseng as wild ginseng. Official inspection labels like National Inspection and Hangzhou Inspection exist, but the mnemonic for identifying wild ginseng can easily fail against high-aged wild-cultivated ginseng. In the end, they resort to “experience-based” and “intuition” mysticism to identify; the other is mixing pond-bottom ginseng with wild-cultivated ginseng for sale. You can tell if you look closely, but this is common practice in the industry. Moreover, farmers growing wild-cultivated ginseng manage a mountain area, and even if field management is sparse, there is some control. It’s hard to say whether this should be called pond-bottom ginseng or wild-cultivated ginseng.
According to a senior from the wild-cultivated ginseng base, the biggest difference between garden ginseng and wild-cultivated ginseng lies in the breeding and cultivation logic. Garden ginseng aims to increase weight and effective content in three years (to obtain flavor), focused on quantity and volume, so the bred varieties grow straight and sturdy; wild-cultivated ginseng aims to preserve wildness (to obtain qi). On one hand, natural wild ginseng can be used directly for breeding; on the other hand, garden ginseng can be bred toward a wild style for several generations to develop wild ginseng traits (I forgot the specific slang)—so there is no clear boundary between the two, purely depending on what the producer wants to achieve with the Tricholoma matsutake.
Therefore, ginseng merchants dare to mix wild-cultivated ginseng and pond-bottom ginseng for sale. Using phenotypic traits to distinguish the two can result in false positives and false negatives. Once they are on the market, it’s impossible to identify them via field management tracing.
The wild-cultivated ginseng currently in stock—some were first given to me by a Taoist friend, and then continuously supplied through his channels—can be counted up to 15-20 years old by counting the heads. Because of minor flaws, the cost performance is still acceptable. I use slightly flawed ginseng myself, which is about half the price of flawless ones.
This batch of wild-cultivated ginseng for the tasting event was given directly to shut the mouths of those “judging authenticity from pictures.” Honestly, I can’t guarantee 100% that the wild-cultivated ginseng in stock hasn’t been mixed with pond-bottom ginseng, but the mysterious force insisting that the wild-cultivated ginseng in the pictures is pond-bottom ginseng is even more ridiculous—I anticipated this, so I gave it away directly, standing on the second level.
No more talk on specific effects; it is a universal qi tonic and has many tricky uses. Wild-cultivated ginseng can directly replenish earth qi (qi and blood) and a small amount of heavenly qi (yuan qi). Except for the inability to use medical insurance, it is better than garden ginseng slices in every way (garden ginseng slices mainly accelerate metabolism; genuine medicinal plants cultivated for 3-5 years can slightly supplement earth essence).
Checking prices: currently, Longxitang’s garden ginseng slices are 1.248 RMB/gram after a 20% discount; 15-20 year slightly flawed wild-cultivated ginseng is 12.8 RMB/gram after a 20% discount. The price difference looks like 10 times, but a dosage of 15 grams for garden ginseng as medicine compares to about 1-3 grams of wild-cultivated ginseng for decoction and separate administration, so the cost difference evens out. 15-20 years is the most cost-effective age range; over 20 years commands a higher premium with only a small stock.
Effects: Tonifies qi. Suitable for most deficiency syndromes and generally effective.
Atractylodes Rhizome (Bai Zhu)
- Atractylodes Rhizome (Bai Zhu)
The taste is sweet and crisp, between corn water and coix seed water, with a slight viscosity. Overall, it’s less flavorful than Atractylodes Macrocephala (Cang Zhu), which has an orange juice flavor. Chewing the decoction pieces directly has a bit of pungency, which brings out the characteristic of a Compositae family plant.
After swallowing, it moistens the entire digestive tract along the esophagus to the stomach. The pancreas area (middle burner) is particularly noticeable, sending warm qi slowly along the spine (earth is central, disease is in the spleen, the point lies along the spine), finally reaching from the back of the head to the tailbone.
Effects: Tonifies qi, strengthens the spleen, unblocks the stomach and intestines, and unblocks the spine.
Yushu (Atractylodes Japonica)
376.1 Yushu
Smaller than Bai Zhu but much stronger in flavor, sweeter, with a slight bitterness; also somewhat tasty when chewed directly. The sweetness has a bit of wandering, and the aftertaste is somewhat bitter.
After swallowing, the wandering sensation through the digestive tract and spine is stronger than Bai Zhu, sometimes causing a trembling impulse. Its effect on supplementing earth qi is much greater than ordinary Bai Zhu, and it also benefits the heart and lungs.
Effects: Tonifies qi, strengthens the spleen, nourishes the heart, moistens the lungs, unblocks the stomach and intestines, and unblocks the spine.