Why Does He Shou Wu (Fallopia multiflora) Look Like a Person? Uncovering the Human-Shaped Hoax and How to Identify It

Everyone knows that He Shou Wu (Fallopia multiflora) can treat gray hair. Although what we usually buy at the pharmacy is processed He Shou Wu, there are often reports that a human-shaped He Shou Wu has been dug up somewhere. So why does He Shou Wu grow to look like a person? And are the human-shaped He Shou Wu weighing dozens of jin on the market a hoax?

Why He Shou Wu Grows to Look Like a Person

Human-shaped He Shou Wu refers to He Shou Wu whose shape resembles a human figure. There are two kinds: naturally formed and artificially cultivated:

1. During the growth of wild He Shou Wu, encountering hard objects such as stones prevents it from growing normally, resulting in a bumpy, uneven appearance; the ones that closely resemble a human figure are naturally formed human-shaped He Shou Wu.

2. Various human-shaped molds are made as needed, then a small He Shou Wu is placed inside the mold and planted in the ground; when it grows up, it becomes an artificially cultivated human-shaped He Shou Wu. The parts of an artificially cultivated human-shaped He Shou Wu are well-proportioned and plump, just like a carved work of art.

The Human-Shaped He Shou Wu Hoax

The so-called “human-shaped He Shou Wu” on the market today could never be genuine He Shou Wu. To date, the largest recorded He Shou Wu is only 2.7 kilograms.

On the market, there is a large price gap between wild He Shou Wu and artificially cultivated He Shou Wu, and human-shaped He Shou Wu is shrouded in even more mystery. Therefore, some people cultivate human-shaped He Shou Wu through certain methods and pass them off as “thousand-year human-shaped He Shou Wu” to reap huge profits. Recently, many media outlets have reported cases of scammers carving banana plants, palm hearts and the like into human-shaped He Shou Wu to cheat people out of money.

According to people in the know, there are mainly three methods of faking: carving fakes from palm hearts and banana roots; grafting using yam tubers; and cultivating He Shou Wu inside molds.

Identification

Genuine and fake He Shou Wu can be distinguished in the following four ways.

1. Source: genuine He Shou Wu is a plant of the Polygonaceae family, while fake He Shou Wu is generally a plant of the Dioscoreaceae family.

2. Color and texture: genuine He Shou Wu has a reddish-brown or red-brown surface, shriveled and uneven, with shallow grooves; the cut surface is light yellowish-brown or red-brown, with abnormal vascular bundles arranged in a ring, forming a cloud-brocade-like pattern, commonly known as “veins”, and its texture is firm; fake He Shou Wu has a dull, smooth surface, a cut surface that tends toward white, no veins in the middle, and a loose, brittle texture.

3. Vine stem: the vine of fake He Shou Wu is generally inserted into the fake He Shou Wu from a genuine He Shou Wu vine during later planting, artificially fabricated; pulling hard will pull it out.

4. Taste: genuine He Shou Wu tastes bitter and astringent, while fake He Shou Wu tastes bland.