Big price gap between honeysuckle and mountain silver flower, genuine and fake mixed together for sale
Reporters learned that the identity of Lonicera macranthoides produced in southern production areas is indeed awkward; it was formerly called honeysuckle, and is now recognized as mountain silver flower, and because honeysuckle and mountain silver flower differ greatly in medicinal value, the price gap is huge, but due to similar shapes and overlapping effects, genuine and fake “Li Kui” are commonly seen mixed together for sale.
Internet celebrity “Yushi Zaito”——Lu Qun, whose real name is verified as deputy director of the Corruption Prevention Office of the Hunan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, has struck again. Yesterday, “Yushi Zaito” posted on Weibo, saying, “The State Food and Drug Administration speaks for interest groups, causing incomparably huge economic losses to tens of millions of ordinary people.”
Southern honeysuckle plunges after name change
“Yushi Zaito” pointed out that around 2005, the National Pharmacopoeia Commission renamed the “honeysuckle” passed down for thousands of years in southern China as “mountain silver flower,” making honeysuckle the exclusive name for Shandong’s “Japanese honeysuckle flower.” On the surface it is an academic issue, but in fact it is a serious corruption issue.
According to his account, after high-quality southern honeysuckle was renamed “mountain silver flower” by the State Food and Drug Administration, its price plummeted. Northern honeysuckle traders took the opportunity to buy large quantities at low prices, pass them off as northern honeysuckle, and sell them at high prices to reap huge profits, while tens of millions of flower farmers in the south lost everything. In order to bring down the southern honeysuckle industry, a Shandong enterprise spent huge sums on public relations, first amending the national pharmacopoeia, and then spreading rumors slandering southern honeysuckle as causing “internal heat.”
It is understood that before the revision of the Pharmacopoeia, honeysuckle (Japanese honeysuckle) and mountain silver flower (Lonicera macranthoides) had always been used interchangeably. After the revision, the scope of use of honeysuckle was made clear, but the scope of use of mountain silver flower was not clearly specified. Therefore, if mountain silver flower appears in medicines as a substitute for honeysuckle, it will be identified as a fake drug. Reporters found that this time “Yushi Zaito” mainly aimed at the fact that Lonicera macranthoides, whose main production area is in the south, was identified as mountain silver flower rather than honeysuckle, causing its price to plummet.
⟦NL> Mountain silver flower output falls but market remains poor
“Whether in medicinal value or picking cost, honeysuckle is far higher than mountain silver flower. The two are inherently very different in status, so it is difficult to conclude that the decline of an industry related to a certain variety was caused by a blow from the pharmacopoeia.” An industry observer said that Lonicera macranthoides and the like produced in southern production areas are now basically considered to belong to mountain silver flower.
Yesterday, Zhang Bin, a pharmaceutical analyst at Sublime China Information, said in an interview with this newspaper's reporter that honeysuckle is generally recognized as having far higher “gold content” than mountain silver flower; the former is usually used as the main medicinal material, while the latter is commonly found in herbal tea beverages and health products.
“The main production areas of honeysuckle are Shandong, Henan, and Hebei. Prices vary by origin. At present, the quotation for first-grade honeysuckle from Shandong is 90-110 yuan/kg.” Zhang Bin introduced, “The main production areas of mountain silver flower are Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou, and other places. The current quotation for sun-dried goods from Hunan is 23-24 yuan/kg.” He said that due to low willingness to plant, news of reduced output of mountain silver flower has come out, but overall supply still exceeds demand, and the market outlook is not optimistic.
Similar properties make it hard for consumers to identify
Long Muheng, director of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Department of the Otolaryngology Research Institute of Guangdong Armed Police Hospital, said that honeysuckle is sold in Guangzhou pharmacies almost all year round, and citizens all know that steeping it in water can relieve sore throat and prevent colds. By comparison, the “audience” for mountain silver flower is much smaller.
An industry insider told this newspaper's reporter that because the properties are very similar and the effects overlap somewhat, genuine and fake “Li Kui” are commonly mixed together for sale. “It is almost difficult for consumers to identify. But the luteoloside component in honeysuckle is extremely low in mountain silver flower, which is the main difference.”