How to Identify Authentic vs. Fake Gastrodia elata? A Quick Guide to Telling Real from Fake

In recent years, due to excessive harvesting for medicinal use, wild Gastrodia elata has been steadily declining, and the medicinal material is in very short supply. Gastrodia elata is an important medicinal material for treating vertigo. Its nature and flavor are sweet and neutral, and it enters the liver meridian. Its main function is to calm the liver and extinguish wind. For dizziness and blurred vision, flushed face, and light-headedness with heavy feet caused by liver yang rising, or for high fever with convulsions, epileptic spasms, and opisthotonus caused by internal stirring of liver wind, taking Gastrodia elata in combination with other drugs often produces good results. In view of this, some unscrupulous merchants pass off similar rhizomes as Gastrodia elata to deceive consumers. Common fake Gastrodia elata on the market include four-o'clock root, dahlia tuberous root, potato, canna edulis underground stem, taro, and others. The rhizomes of these plants are very similar in shape to Gastrodia elata, and sometimes it is hard to tell true from false, so it is necessary to master the key points for identification.

Gastrodia elata is elongated oval, slightly flat, wrinkled and curved, with a residual stem base at one end, red or brownish red, commonly known as the "parrot's beak," and a round root scar at the other end. The surface is yellow-white or pale yellow-brown, semi-transparent, often with remnants of light-colored flaky small skin, mostly longitudinally wrinkled, and several rows of inconspicuous fibrous root scars can be seen arranged in a ring. The texture is hard and not easy to break. Its cross-section is slightly flat, horny yellow-white or brown, and glossy. Chew it in the mouth: it is fairly crisp and sticky. The odor is distinctive, and the taste is sweet. According to the experience of veteran pharmacists, the method for distinguishing true from fake Gastrodia elata can be summarized as: Gastrodia elata is long, round, flat, and slightly curved, with dotted ring patterns in more than ten rings; the stem base at the top is the parrot's beak, and the scar at the bottom resembles a round navel. If it still cannot be distinguished, it is necessary to ask an expert to carry out microscopic identification and physicochemical identification.

Gastrodia elata with yellow-white color, semi-transparency, and a plump and firm body is considered superior; that with gray-brown color, light body, and a hollow cross-section is considered inferior. Regionally speaking, Guangyuan in Sichuan, Ningqiang in Shaanxi, Baishan in Jilin, and Shennongjia in Hubei all produce high-quality Gastrodia elata and are known as authentic medicinal materials.