Where do the herbs in your TCM herbal medicine formula come from? Choosing the best quality herbs is a study in geography, agriculture, international trade, and cultural traditions.
Different Provinces, Different Countries
Top quality herb brokers and companies often travel around the world, visiting different climate and growing regions, choosing specific herbs that are native to each region.
While many TCM herbs come from China, China is a huge country with many different climates and growing conditions. That’s why different provinces in China are known to be the best source for different herbs.
When the growing conditions and harvesting practices are perfect to bring out the best in an herb, that is known as “daodi.”
For example, the temperate highland areas of Shanxi province are considered the daodi origin for astragalus (Huang Qi), producing roots known for their strong tonifying properties. Licorice (Gan Cao) also thrives in Gansu and Inner Mongolia, where the climate and soil are well-suited to its cultivation.
It’s not uncommon for herb buyers to travel directly to each region to assure themselves they are buying local herbs directly from the grower and see the harvesting and handling methods used.
There are many small farms now growing Chinese herbs in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the western hemisphere. Like fine wines, many herbs derive their unique medicinal character not only from climate and soil, but also from the traditional knowledge of the local communities who have cultivated, harvested, and processed them for generations. When these conditions—both environmental and cultural—are faithfully reproduced elsewhere, the resulting herbs can sometimes reach a quality comparable to those from their original regions.”
Also, certain species of herbs used in modern TCM are native to other continents. American ginseng, for example. American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) and Chinese ginseng (Panax ginseng) are different species with distinct energetics in TCM. (There is also a plant known as Siberian ginseng —Eleutherococcus senticosus, which is not a true ginseng.)
The global dispersion of herb growers, along with the wide international market for traditional herbs, are why the price of herbs and herbal formulas can fluctuate. Farming conditions might be devastated by natural disasters in a given region, making a certain herb scarce and in great demand. That means its price could skyrocket one year, but go down the next. Political tensions between different countries could mean tariffs that raise the wholesale price of imported herbs.
Growing Conditions
It’s not only where, but how herbs are grown that makes a difference. Expert herb buyers know all aspects of the TCM herbal industry, and choose herbs grown under the best conditions for each species.
Just as it’s true for flowers and vegetables, each herb requires the right type of soil to produce strong and healthy plants. Some need sandy soil, while others need rich black dirt. Over-farmed soil can become tired and depleted of necessary nutrients. Well-tended soil receives the right natural fertilizers, rest, and often benefits from an alternating crop harvest to replenish soil nutrients. Trusted producers grow healthy plants that are rich in all of the phytochemicals that give the herb its medicinal potency.
Some herbs require damp and wet conditions to grow properly, while others thrive in a dryer climate. Some love hot weather, while others need cool and shady forests to survive. Some herbs can be cultivated well on farms, while others need to be harvested in the wild.
Commercial farms that try to grow non-native species in less-than-ideal conditions, may risk producing inferior and less potent herbs. The more closely farmers can match an herb’s ideal and native growing environment, the better.
After the harvest, farmers also need to know the right way to clean and preserve each herb, as poor handling can damage an herb’s medicinal qualities. Proper handling also prevents the herbs from molds, dust, and other environmental contaminants.
Herb Quality Means Consistency
It’s important that herbal formulas maintain a consistent potency batch after batch. Only using the highest quality herbs can provide this. Consistent quality allows your herbal doctor to evaluate your formula’s impact on your healing success, and add or subtract new herbs as your condition improves or declines. Inconsistent potency yields inconsistent results.
Part of consistent quality is harvesting the plant at the right time. Herbs harvested at their ideal stage of maturity, when their active compounds are most concentrated, ensure maximum therapeutic effect. For example, mature ginseng root is prized for its potency and costs much more than younger, immature roots. Also, some plants are harvested for multiple parts, such as their bark, leaves, flowers, seeds, and/or roots. Each part may need harvesting at a different time to produce the correct medicinal potency for TCM.
Choosing the Best Herbs
These days, you can find Chinese herbs online or even in the vitamin section of drug and health food stores. But as always, it’s “buyer beware.” Not only do you risk purchasing poor quality herbs with little or no potency, cheap producers may be cutting your herbs with low quality – or even toxic – fillers and additives.
Unless you’ve had years of training in herbal medicine and herbal identification, it pays to work with a trusted herbal pharmacy or a company with a strong reputation for providing high quality herbs and herbal formulas. That’s why at Amethyst Holistic Skin Solutions, we use Kamwo Meridian Herbs to produce our herbal formulas for patients. We know they use only the best herbs from trusted growers around the world. This gives Kamwo formulations a potency and consistency that TCM doctors can trust, with no fillers or toxins.
Conclusion
There are centuries of wisdom behind TCM herbal medicine, and centuries of wisdom behind the growing and harvesting of its medicinal herbs. You can gain the benefits of this wisdom by working with practitioners and herbal producers who are knowledgeable and uncompromising in seeking out the best quality herbs from the worldwide market.
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About the Author
Olivia Hsu Friedman, LAc, Dipl.OM, DACM, Cert. TCMDerm, is the owner of Amethyst Holistic Skin Solutions and treats Acne, Eczema, Psoriasis, and TSW. Olivia treats patients via video conferencing using only herbal medicine. Olivia is Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Acupuncturists, serves on the Advisory Board of LearnSkin, and is a faculty member of the Chicago Integrative Eczema Group sponsored by the National Eczema Association.