How to tell real Panax notoginseng powder from fake? A veteran notoginseng farmer with 10 years of growing experience teaches you

Gold will always shine. Panax notoginseng taken raw invigorates blood circulation and dissolves blood stasis, taken cooked it nourishes blood and strengthens the constitution, and applied externally it can also stop bleeding. Never mind whether Panax notoginseng is as miraculous as the major media tout it to be, able to treat high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, rheumatism, and for beauty, and so on. Just from the saying "notoginseng in the south, ginseng in the north," we can see that Panax notoginseng holds no low status in the world of traditional Chinese medicine.

The price of Panax notoginseng is not low now either. Expensive 20-head notoginseng can sell for 500 yuan per jin, and cheap 120-head notoginseng still costs 150 yuan per jin. But when buying notoginseng powder, people worry about being cheated; when buying the roots to take home, sometimes they do not know how to grind them into powder, or the local merchants will not help grind them even for money. So how do you tell the real from the fake and the good from the bad in notoginseng powder? Below I will introduce the experience I have summed up from 10 years of dealing with Panax notoginseng.

The most basic elements for identifying notoginseng powder are the following: the color of the powder, the taste, the foam produced when stirred in water, the effect of invigorating blood circulation and dissolving blood stasis, and the volume, among several aspects. Below I will introduce them to you one by one, slowly.

1. The color of notoginseng powder: The color of notoginseng powder is normally greenish or yellow-green, slightly on the white side. Notoginseng powder normally contains some small black dots, and these small black dots are the outermost skin of the Panax notoginseng.

2. The taste of notoginseng powder: The taste of notoginseng powder is bitter first and then sweet. The bitterness promotes the secretion of saliva in the mouth, followed by a faint, light sweetness. This taste is not too bitter, nor is it sweet from the very start. Its bitterness does not stay in the mouth for too long, summed up in five words: reaches the mouth but not the throat; when the bitterness reaches the tip of the tongue, sweetness returns, meaning it must not be bitter all the way down to the throat.

3. The foam produced when notoginseng powder is brewed: Notoginseng powder contains notoginsenosides. When warm water is added and it is stirred evenly, there is a layer of even, fine foam on the surface in the cup, and after stirring stops, the foam slowly disappears.

4. The volume of notoginseng powder: Panax notoginseng has relatively high density, so after being ground into powder its volume is relatively small. The notoginseng powder stored in a bottle is fairly compact and does not have a fluffy feel. The smaller the volume, the better the quality of the notoginseng powder!

5. The chicken blood experiment with notoginseng powder: This is the most basic experiment for identifying whether it is notoginseng powder. First you need to buy salt-free chicken blood blocks at the market, or save a little when slaughtering a chicken yourself, then add notoginseng powder. Because real notoginseng powder has the effect of invigorating blood circulation and dissolving blood stasis, it will make the chicken blood block slowly turn into blood water rather than clump.

This is the method I summed up based on my father's work in Panax notoginseng cultivation and research on the medicinal effects of Panax notoginseng, on how to distinguish real notoginseng powder from fake. I hope it can be of a little help to everyone, and I also hope everyone will offer your valuable opinions and your experience in the comments section, so we can all discuss and exchange ideas together.