The herbalist teaches you to choose precious herbs

With the improvement of living standard, people pay more and more attention to health From the traditional "winter tonic" to the daily health tonic, the first choice of traditional Chinese medicine is almost fashionable For ordinary consumers who lack relevant professional knowledge, how to choose and identify the authenticity of traditional Chinese medicine is often difficult in the face of dazzling health products advertising and miscellaneous varieties of Chinese herbal medicine To this end, the business newspaper interviewed Lu Xiaohe, a Chinese pharmacist, deputy director of the eastern traditional Chinese medicine room of the municipal hospital It is reported that at present, there are more than 100 kinds of common Chinese herbal medicines in the market that are often falsified by lawbreakers, and there are many methods, such as using the same name foreign bodies or filling them with inferior ones, or adding impurities to increase weight, etc For example, in Cordyceps to increase the weight of nails, American ginseng with the common sun as Lu Xiaohe said that at present, the counterfeiters of fake and inferior products in the market have a kind of psychology They can't eat these things for a while, which is against conscience for the purpose of profiteering In particular, some precious and expensive Chinese herbal medicines, such as Cordyceps sinensis, are most likely to be counterfeited Because the fake one or two is thousands of yuan, and it's hard to identify He especially reminded that consumers must pay more attention to their purchase and choose carefully to prevent being cheated The identification of traditional Chinese medicine is generally described by "shape", the so-called character, that is, the appearance, taste, growth environment, efficacy symptoms, etc of the traditional Chinese medicine, but this way of "seeing, smelling, touching and tasting" to identify traditional Chinese medicine is obviously difficult for ordinary consumers who lack professional knowledge In order to prevent the purchase of fake and shoddy products, Lu Xiaohe suggested that the public should choose the regular drugstore or large hospital drugstore or large department store with "one license" (drug business license) and "one license" (business scope must include the business license of drugs or traditional Chinese Medicine) As for the medicinal materials sold in the market, it's better not to buy them because they are not well kept for a long time In addition, it is better to check relevant certificates when purchasing imported products Regular imported drugs will have import inspection report and batch number of imported drugs, and the external package must also be marked with approval document and batch number Second, we need to look at the outer packaging The outer packaging of authentic products is generally standard and delicate, with anti-counterfeiting marks, while most counterfeit goods are poorly sealed and poorly sealed Cordyceps sinensis is a kind of ergot fungus, which parasitizes on the larvae of bat moth and develops into a complex in summer Genuine product: Cordyceps sinensis is formed by connecting the body and the fruiting body (ovary) of Cordyceps sinensis The body is like a silkworm, 3-5cm long and 0.3-0.8cm in diameter Its surface is earthy yellow to yellowish brown (dark brown produced in Yunnan and Sichuan), with 20-30 rings There are 8 pairs of the abdomen, 3 pairs of the head, 4 pairs of the middle and 1 pair of the tail The insect body is light and brittle, easy to break, slightly flat section, milky white or slightly yellow The ovary is mostly solitary on the head of the insect It is 4-7cm long and 0.3cm in diameter It looks like a golden needle vegetable with a gray brown surface, a handle at the lower end and a head at the upper end It has a "sterile tip" with a length of 0.15-0.55cm It is flexible and not easy to fold Its cross-section is yellow white, empty or solid It is fibrous and smells like straw mushroom and Lentinus edodes Fake products: common Cordyceps (Anhui Cordyceps), Cordyceps Liangshanensis, Cordyceps militaris (Northern cordyceps), ground silkworm, grass stone silkworm, etc The most fake is Cordyceps It is mainly produced in Anhui, Hubei, Jiangxi and other places It has yellow green powder on the surface, brown black on the place without powder, rough body surface, unclear ring lines, less prominent four legs in the middle, and no "sterile tip" at the end of the ovary Other shapes, sizes and colors are very similar to those of Cordyceps sinensis, which is easy to fake The first mock exam is flour, soybean flour, rice noodles and plaster The shape and color of the fake products are almost unreal Only the size of the worm form is molded together, the texture is solid, the false acne is brittle and easy to break, and the section is full It's sweet and sticky, softens when it comes to water, discolors the surface, or dissolves into a paste The commonly used ginseng tonic can be divided into ginseng, Korean ginseng and American ginseng according to the place of origin Genuine ginseng: raw ginseng is the dried product of garden ginseng Its body is spindle or cylindrical, 3-15cm long and 1-2cm in diameter The surface is grayish yellow, the upper part or the whole part has sparse light intermittent thick transverse lines and obvious longitudinal wrinkles, the lower part has 2-3 branch roots, and there are many slender fibrous roots, the fibrous roots often have small verrucous protuberances, commonly known as "Pearl point" The rhizome is 1-4cm long and 0.3-1.5cm in diameter It is mostly contracted and curved, with indefinite roots and sparse dimple like stem marks It is called "Luwan" It is easy in quality, flat in cross-section, yellowish white in color, forming a layer of circular brownish yellow, with yellowish brown punctate resin channels and radial cracks on the skin The air is special and fragrant, and the taste is slightly sweet and bitter White ginseng (sugar ginseng) is a kind of garden ginseng made by pricking holes with needles, soaking in sugar water and drying in the sun The main root is 3-15cm long and 0.7-3cm in diameter The surface is yellowish white, the outer skin is loose, the upper part has more intermittent ring lines, the lower part has 2-3 branch roots, all of which can be seen the punctate needled hole residual mark and sugar like crystal during processing The section is yellow white, loose, with radial cracks in the center and chrysanthemum pattern Qi is specific and fragrant It tastes sweet first and then bitter It can be melted when chewing Red ginseng is the dried product after high temperature steaming The main root is cylindrical, 6-10cm long, the fibrous root has been cut off, there are reed head, and there are 2-3 branch roots in the lower part, which are twisted and crossed The surface is brown or brown yellow All of them are horny and translucent, with longitudinal wrinkles and lateral raised pores or branch root marks It's hard and brittle The section is flat, horny, with a light center in the middle It has special fragrance and tastes sweet and bitter Fake products: common ones are Shanglu, wild cowpea root, huashanshen, Yulan (native ginseng), mountain lettuce, Platycodon grandiflorum, purple holly, and sarshen, which are different from what ordinary consumers can tell In addition, in the market, there are often illegal merchants who fake wild ginseng by splicing, carving, gluing and pasting ginseng and reed heads, and smoke ginseng with sulfur to make its skin white and large To identify ginseng, there is a formula of "long bowl of reed with dense date pit, tight skin and fine grain pearl whisker" All kinds of people take part in the work, the best ones are the ones with thick strips, long round heads, fine lines, many pearl knots and complete forms American ginseng genuine: also known as American ginseng and American ginseng Cold nature, invigorating qi and nourishing Yin, clearing fire and promoting fluid production There are one to several lateral roots in the middle and lower part of the main root, which are fork like branches If broken, the cross section is relatively flat, slightly horny, pinkish white or yellowish brown There are scattered reddish brown finger tube spots, dark brown ring lines, slightly fragrant, bitter and sweet taste The appearance of American ginseng is light yellow or yellowish white, about 3-12cm long and 0.5-1.5cm in diameter Fake product: the root of a similar plant (e.g ginseng) is used to pretend to be a Panax quinquefolium, which is also in the shape of a spinner or a cylinder, about 3-5cm long, about 1cm in diameter, with transverse raised lenticels and lateral roots The cross section is white granular, no fragrance, light and slightly bitter The branches of Korean ginseng are processed into American ginseng, which is grayish yellow in color, with vertical and horizontal lines, without fine horizontal ring lines Hard texture, sour and astringent taste Chinese herbal medicines should not be stored in the refrigerator for many families, the preservation of precious Chinese herbal medicines should be paid special attention to We can't eat them in a short time, so we need to save them scientifically Many people like to put Chinese herbal medicines directly in the refrigerator, which is actually unscientific Unless you seal them completely, the refrigerator is humid and the herbs are prone to mildew and deterioration Therefore, it is recommended to put the herbs on the microwave oven for simmering, and then put them in a dry and cool place for preservation after they are completely sealed Cordyceps sinensis should be sealed and stored in a wooden box wrapped with paper Mothproof, can put some broken dandelion in wooden box Fresh products should be dried, such as mildew can be alcohol scrubbing, drying, drying Red ginseng, white ginseng and American ginseng shall be packed in porcelain cylinder or brocade box, and sealed and stored in lime box Among them, white ginseng and American ginseng can be exposed to the sun and then cooled and packed Red ginseng should be covered with paper to avoid discoloration.