Millennia-old "miracle herb" becomes a wealth-building herb, 80 yuan per kg helps farmers escape poverty
On the wondrous fertile land of Chenggu grows a medicinal herb with small blue-purple flowers. With its own powerful and vigorous vitality, it has carried the dream of prosperity of hundreds of thousands of farmers on this land. This miraculous medicinal herb is Corydalis yanhusuo (yuanhu).
Corydalis yanhusuo is a famous analgesic "miracle herb" highly praised by traditional Chinese medicine scholars through the ages, in use for nearly two thousand years. Modern pharmacological experiments have proven that Corydalis yanhusuo has a clear inhibitory effect on the central nervous system, can relax muscles, and has an antispasmodic effect. Its effectiveness for mild spasmodic pain is roughly comparable to that of dolantin. In addition, Corydalis yanhusuo also has sedative, hypnotic and anticonvulsant effects.
Its extract contains more than 20 kinds of alkaloids, with main effects of promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis, regulating qi and relieving pain. Because its pain relief is non-addictive, it can also be used for late-stage cancer. Its function is similar to that of "Panax notoginseng" (sanqi); since sanqi is very expensive, Corydalis yanhusuo serves as its substitute, and market demand keeps increasing. As Chinese herbal medicine products gradually begin to go abroad, foreign demand for Corydalis yanhusuo is also continuously increasing. Total demand is about 20,000 tonnes or more, nearly twice the production volume.
Chenggu's soil is fertile with a loose texture, abundant rainfall and crisscrossing rivers and canals, providing unique ecological conditions for Corydalis yanhusuo production. The local government has explored an operating model of "company + research institution + cooperative + farmers." It focuses on promoting standardized high-yield cultivation techniques such as seed exchange across locations, formula fertilization and nutritional disease treatment, significantly improving the quality of Chenggu Corydalis yanhusuo. Yield per mu increased from the original 120 kg to more than 180 kg, and the price rose from the original ten-plus yuan per kg to 80 yuan per kg.
Based on a pollution-free production area and superior quality, Chenggu Corydalis yanhusuo quickly became a hot commodity in the medicinal herb market, attracting many out-of-town buyers. The continuously rising price of Corydalis yanhusuo also fattened the wallets of tens of thousands of farmers in Chenggu County. Compared with the benefits of wheat and rapeseed in the same growing period, Corydalis yanhusuo is more than 10 times higher. Gross income per mu can reach more than 12,000 yuan; after deducting planting costs averaging 3,000-4,000 yuan per mu, net income per mu can reach more than 8,000 yuan.
After years of development, the Corydalis yanhusuo planting area in the Hanzhong region has reached more than 200,000 mu, and both yield and quality have greatly improved, with the content of active ingredients two percentage points higher than that of Zhejiang Corydalis yanhusuo. Up to now, the regional output value has reached 3 billion yuan, and output has reached more than 80% of the national total. Chenggu Corydalis yanhusuo has already produced a huge radiating and driving effect, effectively boosting local economic growth and farmers' incomes, raising local farmers' living standards, and targeted poverty alleviation has opened up the last mile for farmers to increase income and become prosperous.