Gastrodia elata is a nutritious Chinese herbal medicine. Because the market demand of gastrodia elata is increasing, there are many fake gastrodia elata. Among them, Zhaotong Gastrodia elata is a traditional and precious dual-purpose Chinese herbal medicine, which has a history of more than 2000 years.
The fundamental reason why Zhaotong Gastrodia elata grows in the deep mountains and forests and becomes a tribute to the capital is that the core main producing areas are full of streams, ancient trees and mysterious atmosphere, which is a natural environment that human beings rarely set foot in so far. In addition, natural humus provides a good environment for the growth of gastrodia elata.
How to choose gastrodia elata?
1, look at the shape
When choosing gastrodia elata, you can first look at the shape of gastrodia elata, and the most important thing is its two ends. If it has dry buds and round scars at both ends, the quality gastrodia elata is rectangular in appearance.
Step 2 smell it
Usually choose gastrodia elata to smell gastrodia elata. Gastrodia elata with good quality has a very special taste, and some people will call this taste "horse urine smell".
In addition, gastrodia elata with good quality is not easy to rot when cooked, and it has a very crisp feeling when chewed without touching the teeth. On the contrary, the quality of gastrodia elata is not good.
3. Gastrodia elata varieties
Gastrodia elata is planted in many areas of China, including wild Gastrodia elata and artificially planted Gastrodia elata, including red Gastrodia elata, black Gastrodia elata and yellow Gastrodia elata. Generally speaking, black gastrodia elata is better, and you can choose the specified variety of gastrodia elata according to your needs.
4, the size of gastrodia elata
Gastrodia elata's head will be bigger and its tail will be smaller. Coarse gastrodia elata would be better, don't choose fine gastrodia elata.
Step 5 smell it
If it smells acidic, it is probably gastrodia elata smoked with sulfur, which is not suitable for purchase.
Wild gastrodia elata generally lives in the forest, so the surface will be a little rough and the shape will be very strange, but most of the gastrodia elata on the market are artificially planted.
When you choose gastrodia elata, you must distinguish between the true and false gastrodia elata. Most of the fake gastrodia elata is made of materials such as mirabilis jalapa root, dried potato and dried Dali chrysanthemum. They don't have the natural special smell of gastrodia elata, and the cut surface is mostly powder, which will stick to the teeth when chewing, and there is no crispy feeling.
The price of authentic gastrodia elata
The price of gastrodia elata has changed greatly in the market. The price of gastrodia elata depends on whether it is wild, true gastrodia elata, spring hemp, winter hemp and so on. So there are some differences in the price of gastrodia elata. According to the market of medicinal materials, the bigger the gastrodia elata, the higher the price, which is generally around 500 yuan/kg, and the bigger one may exceed 1000/ kg.