What application value do orchids have? A comprehensive analysis in one article

Promote Chinese orchid culture, spread orchid knowledge

In China, orchid growing initially developed from a few people's self-entertainment and cultivation of character into a pastime for the general public to enjoy the leaves and admire the flowers, and from small-scale planting into enterprise-based production, forming an emerging industry. There is no doubt that since orchids are an emerging industry, the orchids themselves must be developed and applied. Development and application complement each other. Development facilitates application, and application can promote development. If there is no application value, no one will develop it, and development is precisely the discovery of orchids' application value.

As everyone knows, growing orchids plays a huge role in both spiritual civilization and material civilization. The role orchids play in spiritual civilization includes, for example, their elegant and steadfast qualities inspiring people's loyal and unyielding national character, awakening people's inner purity and pursuit of beauty and goodness, and purifying the soul; growing orchids makes families fulfilled, happy and harmonious, and stabilizes society; and keeps people physically and mentally healthy and prolongs life, and so on. These are all widely known and will not be discussed here for now. The role orchids play in material civilization, for example, the commercial value of orchids, is far higher than that of other flowers. A single pot of orchids can be worth a thousand yuan, a hundred yuan, a hundred thousand yuan, or even a million yuan, which no other famous flower can compare with.

In addition, limited to small-scale scenting of tea, making candied fruit, preparing dishes, and so on, the true value of orchids is still far from being developed and applied. First, what effect does the fragrance of orchids have on the human body? How can it be used in medicine? How can it be artificially synthesized? Can it be made into various fragrances and applied in the cosmetics and food industries? In ancient Egypt, fragrance was already used to treat diseases. In the United States, the chemical industry cooperates with the medical field to make many fragrance products, creating broad financial resources in the cosmetics industry, transportation and tourism sectors, and other departments. It is said that fragrance has the function of regulating people's nervous system. Yet we currently only apply it on a small scale to scenting tea and making candied fruit. Since it is recorded in books and used in some places as a local folk remedy that the plain-hearted orchid is used to induce labor, why not research and develop it? Reports say progress has been made in analyzing orchid fragrance, but what effect it actually has on people's nervous system, whether it can be synthesized, and how it can be used in medical treatment are all still blank areas at present.

Second, what components do the pseudobulbs (some call them corms), roots, leaves, and flowers of orchids each contain, do they have medical effects, do they contain toxins, and what effects do they have on people? At present, very few people have studied these. Some people, besides using the flowers in dishes such as "orchid shredded tripe," also steep the pseudobulbs in liquor, calling it "orchid wine," but whether it benefits people is still hard to conclude. China has a great variety of orchids and abundant resources, and the components contained in various orchids will all differ. For example, there are dozens of species of Dendrobium in China. In the past, only one species called black-jointed grass was used as an indispensable good medicine for singers to soothe the throat. Do other species of Dendrobium have the same effect?

Third, as an emerging industry, orchids still have many products awaiting our research and development: orchids can be used as fresh cut flowers, which has long been no problem for large-flowered cymbidiums, but using our fragrant flowers such as Cymbidium goeringii and Cymbidium faberi as cut flowers makes them prone to withering and unable to last. If a preservation method were developed so that once the fresh flowers are treated they could remain unwithered for a long time, how wonderful that would be. As an industry, a series of products such as dried flowers, flower pots, flower bowls, flower medicines, fertilizers, planting tools, and machinery are all indispensable for growing orchids and flowers, and are yet to be developed.

During the flowering season, one often sees at orchid growing sites and in orchid-rich areas thousands upon thousands of fresh orchid flowers, from opening to withering, living and dying on their own without being used, which is truly regrettable! The development and application of orchids is already realistically placed before us, waiting for us to solve. Let China's orchid circles, chemical industry, medical field, food industry, biochemistry, foreign trade, urban construction, environmental protection, forestry, and agriculture circles join hands to solve the application problems of orchids together! The application and development of orchids has broad prospects.

Orchid Bar, your good teacher on the path of growing orchids