What are the latest main producing areas of honeysuckle?

Honeysuckle has been praised since ancient times as a good medicine for clearing heat and detoxifying. It is sweet in nature, cold in energy, and aromatic; being sweet and cold it clears heat without harming the stomach, and being aromatic and penetrating it can also dispel pathogenic factors. Honeysuckle can both diffuse and disperse wind-heat, and is also good at clearing and resolving blood toxins; it is used for various heat-induced diseases, such as body heat, rashes, macules, heat-toxin sores and carbuncles, sore and swollen throat, and other conditions, all with remarkable results, but do you know what the producing areas of honeysuckle are?

Distribution of honeysuckle producing areas

It is distributed in every province of China, and also in Korea and Japan. In North America it has escaped cultivation and become a difficult-to-eradicate weed. The cultivation areas of honeysuckle are mainly concentrated in Shandong, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangdong and other places. China is rich in honeysuckle; whether in the north or the south, many provinces and regions grow honeysuckle, and among them the three major producing areas of honeysuckle in the north are the most famous, namely Fengqiu in Henan, Pingyi in Shandong and Julu in Hebei.

Fengqiu County, Xinxiang City, Henan Province

Fengqiu County lies in the heartland of the Central Plains, known in ancient times as Huangchi, and is located in the northeastern part of Henan, facing the ancient capital Kaifeng across the river to the south. Open Fengqiu is fostering a good investment atmosphere, with the tide of reform surging everywhere. In recent years the Fengqiu honeysuckle producing area has been heading toward extinction and can no longer be called a major producing area, because in recent years Fengqiu honeysuckle has suffered severe disease, dying in whole patches, and even when replanted it is very hard to keep alive; the provincial agricultural technology bureau sent technicians to solve the problem of honeysuckle dying, tested the soil many times, and gave pesticide formulas, but the problem was never solved. The area under cultivation is shrinking year by year; last year's output was less than 200 tons, and this year it will be even less. Much of the goods sold out of Fengqiu is Hebei and Shandong goods purchased from Julu and Pingyi.

Pingyi County, Linyi City, Shandong Province

Pingyi County is located in the Yimeng mountain area, a hilly region, where farmers make rational use of the land, planting honeysuckle on hillsides, roadsides and field ridges. According to the flower farmers, their total inventory now is no more than 500 tons. Every year large, medium and small pharmaceutical factories such as Harbin Pharmaceutical, Jinling and Taihang come to the Pingyi honeysuckle producing area for large-scale purchasing.

Julu County, Xingtai City, Hebei Province

Julu County is a poverty-stricken county in Hebei Province; through vigorous reform the county government has lightened the burden on farmers, making their lives better day by day. Although the Julu County honeysuckle producing area is not large, business is booming. Traders from Anguo, Bozhou, Shandong, Henan and other producing areas keep moving about the market, and even with prices very unstable and continuously rising, some traders still buy about 20 tons within two or three days, but generally stock is still fairly abundant; the reason the producing area has abundant goods is that holders are reluctant to sell, stockpiling goods in hope of high prices. Julu's current area under Japanese honeysuckle has already reached 170,000 mu. It has already leaped to first place among the three major producing areas, and with centralized trading at the Julu market, it has become the largest distribution center for northern honeysuckle, with prosperity growing day by day.

Efficacy and effects of honeysuckle

Honeysuckle is cold in nature and sweet in taste, entering the lung, heart and stomach meridians, and has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, resisting inflammation, tonifying deficiency and treating wind; it mainly treats distention and fullness with downward flow, warm-disease fever, heat-toxin carbuncles and ulcers, and tumors and other conditions. It has a certain curative effect on conditions such as dizziness and lightheadedness, dry mouth and thirst, excessive sweating and restlessness, enteritis, bacillary dysentery, measles, pneumonia, Japanese encephalitis, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, acute mastitis, septicemia, appendicitis, skin infections, carbuncles, boils and sores, erysipelas, mumps, and suppurative tonsillitis.