Field notes and materia medica
The ChinaAndYou blog
Chinese herbs from the ground up: planting, field growth, harvest and processing, with traditional uses kept separate from modern evidence.
44 field notes
Chinese herbs
Mugwort leaf (艾叶): field growth, harvest, and patient ageing
How Ai Ye grows in managed fields, is gathered for its aromatic leaves, dried, and aged before use.
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Chinese herbs
Poria (茯苓): a medicinal fungus formed beneath the soil
How Fu Ling develops around pine wood underground, is dug out, cut, dried, and prepared for storage.
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Chinese herbs
Platycodon root (桔梗): lifting and drying a deep white root
How Jie Geng grows below ground, is harvested without breakage, cleaned, prepared, and dried.
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Chinese herbs
Fresh ginger (生姜): a kitchen rhizome with a separate medicinal identity
How fresh ginger develops underground, is lifted, cleaned, and distinguished from dried or processed ginger.
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Chinese herbs
Lotus medicines (莲子): one aquatic plant, several harvested materials
How lotus lives in ponds and supplies seeds, receptacles, stamens, leaves, and other distinct medicinal materials.
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Chinese herbs
Ephedra herb and root (麻黄): two parts with sharply different risks
How Ephedra survives dry landscapes, and why its stems and roots are harvested, processed, and discussed separately.
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Chinese herbs
Trichosanthes fruit and root (瓜蒌 / 天花粉): one vine, separate medicines
How a climbing Trichosanthes vine produces a large fruit while its underground root becomes a distinct material.
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Chinese herbs
American cockroach (美洲大蠊): controlled breeding for processed medicine
How American cockroaches are raised in managed colonies and converted into standardized processed extracts.
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Chinese herbs
Medicinal leech (水蛭): aquatic farming, drying, and bleeding risk
How medicinal leeches live in water, are raised or collected, cleaned, dried, and handled as a high-risk animal medicine.
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Chinese herbs
Centipede (蜈蚣): collecting and drying a venomous animal medicine
How medicinal centipedes are found, handled, straightened, and dried—and why venom makes professional control essential.
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Chinese herbs
Toad venom (蟾酥): a potent secretion collected under strict control
How Chan Su is collected from toad secretions, dried, graded, and kept within professional medicine because of serious toxicity.
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Chinese herbs
Prepared aconite daughter root (附子): cultivation where processing is critical
How Fu Zi develops beside the mother root, is harvested, repeatedly processed, and kept out of home preparation because raw aconite is highly toxic.
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Chinese herbs
Croton residue, cinnabar, and musk (巴豆霜 / 朱砂 / 麝香): processing high-risk materials
Why defatting, grinding, purification, and formula-making do not make toxic or restricted materials suitable for home use.
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Chinese herbs
Zuo Tai mercury preparation (佐太): a specialist mineral process, not a household medicine
How a Tibetan mercury-containing preparation is produced through controlled stages and why mercury exposure remains a central safety concern.
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Chinese herbs
Chinese scorpion and stiff silkworm (全蝎 / 僵蚕): two animal medicines paired in practice
How scorpions and fungus-infected silkworm larvae develop, are collected, dried, and paired under professional control.
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Chinese herbs
Glossy privet fruit and Eclipta herb (女贞子 / 墨旱莲): a field-and-tree pairing
How black privet fruits and a low annual field herb are harvested separately before being paired in a traditional formula.
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Chinese herbs
Codonopsis root (党参): a cultivated root that is not ginseng
How Dang Shen grows as a climbing perennial, is lifted and dried, and remains distinct from Ren Shen despite overlapping traditional language.
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Chinese herbs
Red and white peony root (赤芍 / 白芍): similar plants, different processing
How source, cultivation, bark removal, heating, and drying distinguish two peony-root medicines.
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Chinese herbs
Cassia seed and abalone shell (决明子 / 石决明): similar names, unrelated sources
How a field-grown legume seed and a marine shell become two entirely different medicinal materials.
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Chinese herbs
Chinese angelica and Astragalus root (当归 / 黄芪): two roots shaped by different climates
How Dang Gui and Huang Qi grow in contrasting Gansu landscapes, are lifted in autumn, dried, sliced, and paired.
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Chinese herbs
Atractylodes lancea and white atractylodes (苍术 / 白术): two rhizomes, two processing paths
How Cang Zhu and Bai Zhu grow, are dug and cleaned, then processed differently before being paired.
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Chinese herbs
Hawthorn fruit (山楂): orchard harvest, slicing, and drying
How Shan Zha ripens on orchard trees, is gathered in autumn, sliced, dried, and sometimes toasted.
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Chinese herbs
Ginkgo seed and leaf (白果 / 银杏叶): one ancient tree, two safety profiles
How ginkgo seeds and leaves are gathered and processed separately, with particular caution around raw seeds and concentrated extracts.
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Chinese herbs
Cicada slough (蝉蜕): collecting an empty shell after emergence
How cicada nymphs leave the soil, shed their exoskeletons, and leave behind the light material known as Chan Tui.
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Chinese herbs
Gypsum (石膏): mining, crushing, and distinguishing a mineral medicine
How medicinal gypsum is obtained from mineral deposits, cleaned, crushed, and kept distinct from calcined material and construction products.
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Chinese herbs
Pinellia tuber (半夏): why raw tubers require controlled processing
How Ban Xia grows as a small tuber crop and is transformed into distinct prepared forms without making home processing acceptable.
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Chinese herbs
Immature and mature bitter orange (枳实 / 枳壳): harvest timing creates two medicines
How the same citrus crop becomes Zhi Shi or Zhi Ke according to fruit age, size, slicing, and drying.
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Chinese herbs
Chinese goldthread (黄连): five years in shade before harvest
How Huang Lian is cultivated for years on shaded mountain plots, lifted, fire-dried, and cleaned root by root.
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Chinese herbs
Donkey-hide gelatin (阿胶): traceable hides, long boiling, and concentration
How E Jiao is made from cleaned donkey hide through extraction and concentration, with sourcing and evidence kept in view.
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Chinese herbs
Mulberry leaf (桑叶): frost, harvest, and drying
How mulberry leaves are seasonally harvested and dried for the Chinese medicinal material Sang Ye.
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Chinese herbs
Niu Xi (牛膝): from cultivated field to dried medicinal root
How Niu Xi grows, is harvested and processed, and is traditionally used for particular symptom patterns.
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Chinese herbs
Eucommia bark (杜仲): harvesting bark without losing the tree
How Du Zhong bark grows, is carefully removed, flattened, and dried for traditional use.
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Chinese herbs
Fleeceflower root (何首乌): from wild tuber to prepared root
How He Shou Wu is found, sliced, dried, and traditionally processed—and why raw and prepared forms must not be confused.
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Chinese herbs
Pummelo peel (化橘红): an orchard medicine shaped by place
How the fuzzy pummelo fruit used for Hua Ju Hong is cultivated, harvested, cut, and dried.
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Chinese herbs
Red yeast rice (红曲): fermentation, colour, and medicine
How steamed rice is inoculated, fermented, watched by hand, and sun-dried into Hong Qu.
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Chinese herbs
Dragon tree resin (龙血竭): finding and extracting a red tree resin
How resin-bearing dragon trees are located, protected, and processed into the material known as Long Xue Jie.
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Chinese herbs
Prepared rehmannia root (熟地黄): washing, steaming, and drying
How Di Huang root is repeatedly moistened, steamed, and dried into the dark prepared material Shu Di Huang.
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Chinese herbs
Gastrodia tuber (天麻): an orchid grown with fungi
How the leafless orchid Tian Ma depends on fungi, is harvested underground, and reaches the kitchen and pharmacy.
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Chinese herbs
Reishi mushroom (灵芝): from wild logs to managed cultivation
How Ling Zhi fruits on wood, releases spores, and can be cultivated instead of repeatedly hunted in the wild.
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Chinese herbs
Asian ginseng (人参): the patient work of lifting a wild root
How Ren Shen grows beneath forest cover and why harvesting its fine roots can take hours.
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Chinese herbs
Licorice root (甘草): deep roots and restrained harvesting
How Gan Cao survives dry grassland, develops long roots, and is harvested with attention to regrowth.
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Chinese herbs
Rhodiola root (红景天): restoring a high-altitude medicinal plant
How Hong Jing Tian grows on the Tibetan Plateau and why collectors are turning toward propagation and replanting.
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Chinese herbs
Safflower (红花): a dawn harvest in Xinjiang
How safflower is grown and hand-picked during its narrow flowering window for the medicinal material Hong Hua.
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Chinese herbs
Saffron (藏红花): flowers, stigmas, and careful drying
How saffron crocuses are cultivated near Shanghai and hand-processed into the medicinal spice Zang Hong Hua.
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