Gastrodia elata is not only medicine, but also food and health food. It is also an article that can be used as health food as stipulated by the Ministry of Health. In the poem Zhai Ju written by Bai Juyi, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, there is a poem "A few spoonfuls of porridge from Astragalus membranaceus, a red arrow and an ou soup". Gastrodia elata was also called "red arrow" in ancient times, which shows that Astragalus membranaceus and Gastrodia elata were used as food to cook porridge and soup in Tang Dynasty. Liu Gongquan, a great calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, wrote "Asking for a Red Arrow Sticker", which also used gastrodia elata as food to help the elderly. In the Ming Dynasty, in Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica, several edible methods of Gastrodia elata were recorded: "The other party vomited too much, or cooked it", "or fried the honey of the living person as fruit food, which is very precious." These eating methods have been handed down from generation to generation. Now, fresh gastrodia elata is washed, sliced, dipped in sugar, cold-mixed, cooked and honey-fried, especially "honey-fried" gastrodia elata, which is the first.

Zhaotong Tianma is famous. In the fifty years of the reign of emperor Qianlong (1785), the magistrate in Yibin, Sichuan invited the emperor to enter the DPRK, and specially sent a confidant official to lead a drug dealer and a drug farmer to dig gastrodia elata in Xiaocaoba, and selected the first-class products and put them in brocade boxes to celebrate the birthday of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty. As soon as the atmosphere opened, the fallacy spread, and it became a drawback for the government and county officials to regard Gastrodia elata as the self-interest of their cronies and promote it. From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, gastrodia elata was unearthed every year, and officials and businessmen from all over the country gathered in Xiaocaoba to buy it. This is a remote mountainous area, just like a busy city, and the daily market volume exceeds 1000 kg.

1973 At the Guangzhou Autumn Fair, the price of Gastrodia elata in Xiaocaoba, China was as high as RMB 0/20,000 per ton, and buyers were still overwhelmed. Zhaotong gastrodia elata is mainly wild gastrodia elata, and its varieties are Polygonum cuspidatum and Gastrodia tomorrow, especially Polygonum cuspidatum. In the 1950s, the annual purchasing volume of the whole region reached about 30,000 kilograms. Since then, due to overexploitation, the output has shown a downward trend. In order to meet the market demand at home and abroad and rationally develop and utilize wild resources, under the guidance of Kunming Institute of Botany, sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction experiments of Gastrodia elata have been carried out since the end of 1950s. 1978 The scientific research achievements of artificially cultivated Gastrodia elata were appraised and popularized in 1 1 cities and counties, and the annual acquisition of Gastrodia elata increased to about 30,000 kg. Zhaotong Pharmaceutical Factory takes Gastrodia elata as the main medicine, supplemented by honey Tianma pills processed by other local medicinal materials, with fine selection of materials, exquisite production and positive clinical efficacy, and won the title of high-quality products in Yunnan Province.

The gastrodia elata wine developed in Yiliang County is amber, crystal clear, delicious and mellow, retains the medicinal efficacy of gastrodia elata, and is favored by consumers for its special taste, aroma and charm.