Huge development potential for medicinal herb cultivation in rural areas
Bletilla striata
Bletilla striata is a plant of the genus Bletilla in the orchid family (Orchidaceae), also known as Lianjicao, Gangen, Baigei, Zhulan, Zilan, etc. It is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine with functions such as tonifying the lungs and stopping bleeding, reducing swelling and promoting tissue regeneration. It is mainly used to treat pulmonary tuberculosis with coughing of blood, bronchiectasis with hemoptysis, gastric ulcer with vomiting of blood, hematuria, bloody stools, etc. Externally, it is used to treat traumatic bleeding, burns and scalds, cracked hands and feet, etc. Bletilla striata has an especially good hemostatic effect. Nowadays, adhesive film blocks made from Bletilla striata are used in liver and spleen surgery, applied to the incision site to replace hemostatic forceps, with excellent results. It has a rapid coagulation effect and can substitute for plasma in many surgical procedures. It is mainly produced in Sichuan, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu and other provinces, and is cultivated throughout the country.
Bletilla striata cultivation techniques
Morphological characteristics
Bletilla striata is a perennial herb, with a plant height of 30-60 cm. The tuber is fleshy, white, with 2-3 forks in a water-caltrop shape, and has fibrous roots, often several growing together. The raceme is terminal, usually with 3-8 flowers; the flowers are pale purplish-red, with irregular petals. The capsule is cylindrical, with 6 longitudinal ridges, slightly pointed at both ends. The seeds are tiny and numerous. The flowering period is April-May, and the fruiting period is July-August. There are two types of Bletilla striata; another type has yellow-white flowers and linear-lanceolate leaves, known as narrow-leaf Bletilla striata. Among the purplish-red-flowered types, there are large and small varieties, with the large variety having higher tuber yield.
Bletilla striata cultivation techniques
Growth characteristics
Bletilla striata prefers a warm, shady and relatively moist environment, is not cold-tolerant, and requires fertile, loose and well-drained sandy loam or humus loam. It should be cultivated on shady slopes or relatively moist plots.
Bletilla striata cultivation techniques
Cultivation techniques
1. Site selection and land preparation: Choose loose, fertile sandy loam and humus loam, in a warm, slightly shady and moist environment; it is not cold-tolerant. When planting on well-drained mountainous land, it is best to choose a shady slope of virgin land. Plow the soil to a depth of more than 20 cm, apply barnyard manure and compost, with 1000 kg of farmyard manure per mu. If there is no farmyard manure, broadcast 50 kg of NPK compound fertilizer. Then plow again to mix the soil and fertilizer evenly. Before planting, do a shallow plowing once, break up the soil finely, rake it level, and make raised beds 130-150 cm wide.
2. Propagation method: Bletilla striata is difficult to propagate by seed, but easier by tuber division. From early September to November, dig out the Bletilla striata, select medium-sized tubers with many bud eyes and no disease, each with 1-2 buds, dip them in plant ash, and then plant. Open furrows with a row spacing of 20-25 cm and a depth of 5-6 cm, place one tuber at a plant spacing of 10-12 cm, with the bud facing upward, cover with soil, press firmly, water, and cover with grass, keeping it constantly moist. Seedlings emerge in March-April. Use 100 kg of seed tubers per mu.
3. Field management
① Cultivation and weeding: Bletilla striata has very strict weed control requirements in field management. After planting, spray acetochlor for pre-emergence sealing. After the Bletilla striata seedlings emerge completely, during May-June, Bletilla striata grows very vigorously, and weeds also grow very fast, so weeding is carried out. Weeding is combined with loosening the bed surface. When weeding, hoe shallowly to avoid damaging the roots.
② Timely topdressing: Bletilla striata is a fertilizer-loving plant. Spray potassium dihydrogen phosphate or dilute human and animal manure once a month. In July-August, it stops growing and enters dormancy, but weed overgrowth must be prevented.
③ Irrigation and drainage: Bletilla striata prefers shade and should be kept constantly moist. Water during drought. In July-September, water once in the morning and once in the evening. Bletilla striata is also afraid of waterlogging, so drain promptly after heavy rain to avoid root damage.
Bletilla striata cultivation techniques
Pest and disease control
1. Root rot: It mostly occurs in the rainy seasons of spring and summer in the south. Control methods: Pay attention to drainage and waterproofing, and dig deep drainage ditches.
2. Cutworms and wireworms: They can be controlled by manual capture and trapping, or by mixing poisonous soil, and applying "Dichongjue" into the bed. Irrigate the bed with a 700-fold dilution of 50% zinc-sulfur-phosphorus emulsifiable concentrate.
Bletilla striata cultivation techniques
Harvesting and processing
After Bletilla striata has been planted for 2-3 years, when the aboveground stems wither in September-October, dig out the tubers, remove the soil, and process them. Pick off the tubers individually, select and keep the tubers with new stems for seed use, cut off the stems, soak in clean water for 1 hour, wash off the soil, put in boiling water and boil for 5-10 minutes, take out and dry over a heated kang until completely dry. Remove all coarse skin and fibrous roots, and sift out impurities. Generally, 800-1000 kg of fresh product can be harvested per mu, which can be processed into 200-300 kg. Those that are large, plump, white, semi-transparent and solid in texture are considered best. Bletilla striata tubers contain starch, glucose and volatile oil, and the roots contain bletilla glucomannan.
After reading the cultivation techniques for Bletilla striata, let's take a look together with the editor at how the cultivation prospects for Bletilla striata look!
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Cultivation prospects of Bletilla striata
The tubers of Bletilla striata are a traditional Chinese medicine in China. Bletilla striata also has brightly colored flowers and is a very good ornamental plant. Due to the expansion of market demand, the market demand for Bletilla striata is very strong. In recent years, wild Bletilla striata in most areas of China has been over-harvested, causing its wild natural resources to decrease sharply and be on the verge of extinction, and it has been listed by the state as one of the key protected wild medicinal plants. Because wild Bletilla striata resources have suffered devastating damage, and artificial breeding of Bletilla striata is still subject to certain technical limitations, the shortage of goods on the market and skyrocketing prices have become an inevitable trend. To confirm this statement, we will argue from the following aspects.
Bletilla striata cultivation techniques
The uniqueness of Bletilla striata's living conditions
1. Uniqueness of living environment requirements: Bletilla striata mostly grows wild on sunny slopes, in open forests and in grass in mountain valleys and river valleys. It likes a cool, relatively humid environment, and fertile, loose, well-drained sandy soil. Therefore, the resources of Bletilla striata, which require a unique living environment, are limited. At present, the production areas of wild resources remain only in extremely limited remote mountainous areas in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan and other places.
2. Uniqueness of asexual reproduction: Bletilla striata is a perennial herb with a short plant (wild germplasm resources not subjected to artificial breeding). Purplish-flowered Bletilla striata is about 30 cm tall, and Sichuan Emei white-flowered large Bletilla striata is more than 33 cm tall. Bletilla striata has 3-6 leaves, long lanceolate, slightly wider in the middle, with pointed tips. Bletilla striata sprouts in March, flowers in April-May, and fruits in August-October. The seedlings die back in December. Although Bletilla striata produces fruit, it cannot rely on seeds for reproduction. Mature Bletilla striata seeds are olive-shaped, yellow powdery, and very tiny. The seed coat is composed of a single layer of cells, with thickened side walls. The organelles and protoplast have already disappeared, and it is a layer of semi-transparent dead cells. The embryo is oval, undifferentiated, at the proembryo stage, with a degenerated suspensor and no endosperm. Under natural conditions, it very rarely germinates into seedlings. Research work on artificial breeding has progressed very slowly, and this is a key topic in the study of changing wild Bletilla striata to domestic cultivation. The mystery of this growth link exceeds the level of understanding of the vast majority of producers. From this it can be seen that at present domestic Bletilla striata can only use pseudobulbs as seedlings, and only pseudobulbs of the current year with old stalks and tender buds can develop into new plants. To develop domestic cultivation of Bletilla striata, one must inevitably face the difficulty of a shortage of seed seedlings. Furthermore, this traditional method of division propagation inevitably leads to low yield, poor resistance to pests and diseases, and degeneration generation after generation. Due to the shortage of seedlings, large-scale industrial planting is still far out of reach at present.
3. Uniqueness of population distribution: In nature, Bletilla striata shows a scattered distribution state. So far, no dense, continuous growth like the peonies on the Hulunbuir Grassland has been found. The population distribution of wild Bletilla striata is small and sparse; this is its nature. For developing domestic cultivation, there are currently no mature experiences and techniques, so the yield per mu is low. In Guizhou, Jiangxi and other places that took the lead in changing wild Bletilla striata to domestic cultivation, the yield per mu is only a few dozen kg, and the production cost is extremely high, which cannot mobilize the production enthusiasm of producers.
4. Uniqueness of the growth cycle: Bletilla striata has a long growth cycle. A pseudobulb planted for two years can only produce 2 new pseudobulbs, increase by 4 in the third year, and increase by 8 in the fourth year. This is a typical 1+1=2 mode of reproduction. Even if domestic cultivation succeeds, it takes at least four years from planting to harvest. In nature, Bletilla striata pseudobulbs older than four years not only do not increase, but instead rot because the pseudobulbs become too crowded.
5. Uniqueness of the processing process: After Bletilla striata is dug up, the processing technique is relatively complicated because Bletilla striata is rich in gelatinous substances. After digging, shake off the soil, cut off the fibrous roots, soak in water for about 1 hour, tread off the coarse skin, then put into a boiling water pot and boil for 6-10 minutes, stirring constantly, until there is no white core, then take out and dry in the sun. Natural sun-drying takes more than a month. During the sun-drying or oven-drying process, it must be repeatedly placed in bamboo baskets or trough cages and struck back and forth to rub off the coarse skin and fibrous roots, making it smooth, white and semi-transparent. During the drying process, a slight mistake will scorch the Bletilla striata, making it unusable as a commodity. In summary, Bletilla striata resources are becoming increasingly scarce. The techniques for sexual and asexual reproduction of Bletilla striata in the laboratory have just been solved, while large-field industrial planting has not yet started. Even if complete production technology has been mastered, one still faces the difficulty of a growth cycle as long as four to five years.
Bletilla striata cultivation techniques
Quality becoming increasingly poor proves scarcity
Bletilla striata dug in the 1980s was as large as a silver coin (silver dollar), plump, white, semi-transparent and solid. By the 1990s, about 10% of good-quality product could be selected out, and basically all of it was used for export. Nowadays, it is as small as a fingertip, shriveled, hollow, not peeled, and brown-black in color. In addition, adulteration is very serious; adulteration of Bletilla striata decoction pieces is an open secret. Fake goods have developed from the initial water Bletilla striata to more than 10 kinds such as small yellow essence, soil yellow essence, sweet yellow essence, flat Bletilla striata, etc. The price of fake goods has also risen from more than 10 yuan to more than 100 yuan. This phenomenon reflects the scarcity of Bletilla striata as a commodity!
Bletilla striata cultivation techniques
Rising prices prove scarcity
Bletilla striata resources are limited, so the market price has generally trended upward, and has roughly gone through four stages of development.
1. Slow rise year after year: 1.10-1.20 yuan in 1985, 2-3 yuan in 1986-1987, 3-4 yuan in 1988, 4-5 yuan in 1989-1991, 5-6 yuan in 1992-1993, 6-8 yuan in 1994, 8-9 yuan in 1995, 10-11 yuan in 1996, and 12 yuan in 1997-2001. Over these 16 years, the market price of Bletilla striata rose 11-fold, but after excluding inflation factors, it was still a slow rise.
2. Large fluctuations: In 2001, the market price of Bletilla striata was 12-15 yuan, 16-18 yuan in 2002-2003, suddenly soared to 50 yuan in the first half of 2004, and fell back to around 35 yuan in 2005-2006.
3. Monthly surges: Entering 2007, dramatic changes took place in the market price of Bletilla striata. It rose to 40 yuan in April, 50 yuan in May, 60 yuan in June, and 70 yuan in July, because large goods were sold out in all major medicine markets and in the producing areas of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan.
4. Sky-high price of 100 yuan: In 2010, Bletilla striata appeared at a sky-high price of 100 yuan, and by March 2012 it had remained at around 230 yuan, and there was a price but no goods.
Summary: Price is a measure of resource scarcity. Things are precious because they are rare, and expensive because they are rare. Bletilla striata resources are scarce, and this is already an indisputable fact.
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Bletilla striata cultivation
Artificially created scarcity
1. Growth in demand for Bletilla striata: Bletilla striata originally belonged to a minor variety among traditional Chinese medicine commodities. From the 1950s to the 1980s, national demand for medicinal use did not exceed 200 tons. In the 1986 national survey of traditional Chinese medicines, the resource status of Bletilla striata and its production, supply, sales and inventory were not included in the statistical scope, because it was a minor variety that could be ignored at that time. But the present is not what it used to be. China's current demand for Bletilla striata has increased 5-10 times compared with 20 years ago, reaching several thousand tons.
2. Wide range of uses: Bletilla striata can be used as an adhesive when dyeing cloth, as an adhesive for high-grade cigarettes, as an adhesive for mounting Chinese calligraphy and paintings, and as a repair agent for broken roots of the Chinese medicinal material wild ginseng. For thousands of years, Bletilla striata has been used as a traditional Chinese medicine. Its main functions are healing sores and stopping bleeding, tonifying the lungs, reducing swelling and promoting tissue regeneration, etc. Modern scientific research has proved that Bletilla striata pseudobulbs are rich in a large amount of water-soluble polysaccharides, whose chemical component is glucomannan, the main functional component of Bletilla striata gum. Bletilla striata polysaccharide gum is an excellent natural food thickener, and is also a relatively safe pharmaceutical raw material, a medicinal excipient with excellent performance, and a biomedical material with considerable development prospects. In addition, Bletilla striata polysaccharide gum can also be applied to daily chemical products, replacing chemical thickeners, and has functions such as reducing irritation, protecting the skin, and delaying aging. With the continuous deepening of research, the scope of application of Bletilla striata is becoming wider and wider, which has also led to increasing demand for Bletilla striata.
3. Extinction-style harvesting: Stimulated by prices, when wild Bletilla striata is harvested, none are left regardless of size; the higher the price, the cleaner it is dug. Because Bletilla striata reproduces by pseudobulbs, this harvesting method is an important reason why wild Bletilla striata populations are dug out wherever found and then become extinct one patch after another. Bletilla striata should originally be harvested in October-December, when its pseudobulbs are large and plump, with high gum content, good quality, and a high fresh-to-dry ratio. However, because the market price remains high and germplasm resources are scarce, in recent years it has always been harvested early during the April flowering period. As a result, the immature pseudobulbs are thin and shriveled, the fresh-to-dry ratio is extremely low, and the medicinal quality standard cannot be met at all. In this way, the reduced yield and income caused by early harvesting year after year have also artificially caused a great waste of resources.
4. The growing environment of Bletilla striata is becoming increasingly degraded: The scope of human activities is becoming wider and wider, and wasteland and grass are becoming fewer and fewer. The ecological conditions of Bletilla striata have suffered great damage. In particular, in recent years, mountainous areas such as Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan have developed forest and fruit economies, extensively reclaimed barren slopes, and planted fruits, tea and medicinal herbs in diversified operations, destroying the natural conditions on which Bletilla striata depends for survival. Bletilla striata has lost the spatial conditions for survival and reproduction, the remaining soil resources are becoming fewer and fewer, and Bletilla striata as a commodity is also becoming increasingly scarce.
5. Irreplaceable miraculous efficacy and wide range of uses: The most fundamental reason for the scarcity of Bletilla striata is still its miraculous efficacy. Its nature is slightly cold, and its taste is bitter, sweet and astringent. It has the functions of astringing to stop bleeding, reducing swelling and promoting tissue regeneration. It is used for tuberculosis with vomiting of blood, bronchiectasis with hemoptysis, gastric ulcer with vomiting of blood, hematuria, bloody stools, etc., and can also be used for symptoms such as traumatic bleeding. The miraculous efficacy and wide range of uses of Bletilla striata have also accelerated the extinction of its resources.
Bletilla striata cultivation techniques
The price of a scarce future
As for how the market price of Bletilla striata will trend in the future, we believe that with scarce resources and supply falling short of demand, a price increase is a foregone conclusion. The skyrocketing market price of Bletilla striata is caused by many reasons, including the extreme scarcity of wild resources and the fact that changing wild Bletilla striata to domestic cultivation has not truly started. If the state invests special scientific research funds and increases research efforts on changing wild Bletilla striata to domestic cultivation, then standardized expansion of production area can alleviate the shortage of Bletilla striata commodity supply. However, from the laboratory to commercialized large-batch production, this process will take at least another 5-8 years. The task before us is arduous and heavy, and there is still a great deal of work that we must do step by step, down to earth.