Where Is the Best Gorgon Nut (Qianshi) Produced? A Roundup of Premium Producing Areas

Gorgon nut (Qianshi) is the dried ripe seed kernel of the water lily family plant Euryale ferox, usable both as food and as medicine; it has the effects of tonifying the kidney and securing essence, strengthening the spleen and stopping diarrhea, and removing dampness and stopping leukorrhea. It is widely distributed throughout Southeast Asia, grows wild in lakes, ponds and marshes across all provinces and regions of northern and southern China, and is cultivated in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang area. In classification, it is generally divided by producing area into southern gorgon nut and northern gorgon nut. Let us take a look below at where gorgon nut is best!

Where is gorgon nut best?

Yugan County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province is a veritable “Hometown of Chinese Gorgon Nut”, the county with the largest gorgon nut planting area and the highest technological content in processing in China. The county's gorgon nut planting area has remained stable at around 100,000 mu, and its planting history, according to written records, already spans more than 1,200 years; the actual history of gorgon nut cultivation there can be traced back to an even earlier era, but unfortunately no written evidence remains. Yugan gorgon nut is renowned at home and abroad for its white color, large grains, delicious taste, delicate fragrance and rich nutrition, and is exported overseas; its medicinal value is even more widely known, making it a distinctive product for green health care that strengthens the spleen and benefits the kidney.

Where are gorgon nut producing areas?

1. Southern gorgon nut: Southern gorgon nut is produced in the Taihu Lake area of Jiangsu. Apart from the spines on the underside of the leaves, mature plants have no spines on the leaf stalks, fruit stalks or the outside of the fruit. The gorgon nut kernels are round and neat, not smooth, jade-white, glutinous in nature and of good quality, with adaptability inferior to that of northern gorgon nut.

2. Northern gorgon nut: Northern gorgon nut is produced in the Hongze Lake area of China, in a wild or semi-wild state. The whole plant is densely covered with stiff spines, the fruit is small, and the gorgon nut kernels are round, irregular, white, smooth and of poor quality, with strong adaptability.

How to select gorgon nut

1. Color: Gorgon nut with a white and bright color is generally rather glutinous in texture, while that which looks white but lacks luster is firm in texture, and one with a yellowish tint may be old stock.

2. Shape: The shape of gorgon nut should have round, neat grains of uniform size.

3. Biting: Choose dry gorgon nut, otherwise it easily molds. Judge by biting with the teeth: one that is crisp and easily broken is dry, while one that is slightly tough is damp.

4. Smelling: Smell gorgon nut for any off odor; if there is a sulfur smell, it may have been processed after being damaged by insects.