Beijing... still day one

You should have known by now why I am so pious about TCM (Traditonal Chinese Medicine). How can one not be intriqued by all the peculiar herbs and the subtle power they hold that can work magic on you? It's a knock-out!


Brass Acupuncture Man

We are still at the Museum of Chinese Medicine. Cordiceps, no 't', an overly famous herb in Malaysia, which is, on the contrary, rarely used in China. In fact, I've never seen it used in our hospital. Somehow, most of the Tibetan herbs are not favourite items here. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the chinese lack the concept of BU 补, you know, replendish, compared to us in the South and that, they are not as rich. I made some herbal soup for dinner the other day and my local classmate thought I was crazy, "why are you putting medicine in your soup?"



These are cordiceps. Well, fake ones. Note: cordiceps should be spelled without t, sorry my mistake.

So how do you differentiate real and 'pirated' cordiceps?



Well, before that I need to educate you on the arousing interesting story of Cordyseps.

It's real name is Cordyceps Sinensis (CS). CS is acutally a fungus that invades the underground caterpillar of ghost moth. It devours scarily on the host tissue overtime and eventually replacing the caterpillar body with fungal tissue. Thus, the shape of CS looks like some kind of caterpillar. Now, this is how you differentiate the real and fake ones. Once it's consumed its host entirely, it would have, by this time, grown a usually columnar fruiting body that reaches the surface and releases spores. So the CS that we use for medical pupose is really the carcass of a caterpillar and the fruiting body of CS.

Get it?

Other names for CS include: Chinese Caterpillar Fungus, Cordyceps Sinensis Mushroom. And the most interesting one, of course, is its chinese name. Well, the chinese way of saying and naming things gets things accross in a more pictorial way. It's called Winter-worm, Summer-Grass 冬虫夏草 Dong Chong Xia Cao. As mentioned above the fruiting body (fungus) and the worm (caterpillar) are used together. And it's been observed that the caterpillar gets invaded in winter and by the time it's summer, it's turned into some kind of decomposed dung. So, it's a winter worm that turns into grass in summer. Because it's both an animal and a plant, it's believe to hold special medical properties that could balance Yin and Yang. Imagine how cheese, wine, beer and soy-sauce are made. All these super nutritious food are being comsumed by some kind of fungus, you know. It's been known to most chinese housewives that it can restore energy, promote longevity, stimulate the immune system, and to improve quality of life. Now you know why your mum nags you to drink her cordyceps soup. Ancient records claim that it is beneficial for the heart, circulatory system, liver, kidneys, respiratory system, and sex organs. In modern medicine, it's been widely used to relieve asthma, increase lung function, boost libido and sexual function, and improve athletic performance. HOW COOL IS THAT?

In short, CS a perfect immune booster. Having said that, it's NOT MEANT for fit and healthy people. Please do not feed your healthy kids immune booster, that includes all the vitamin tablets etc. I beg you. That will be against the golden rule of TCM, i.e. balancing of Yin and Yang. Always stick to the rule that too much of anything is never good for you.

Well, except cakes. :-p

The next interesting I want to show you is Pumpkin Seeds, NAN GUA ZI 南瓜子. It's sweet, and belongs to the Large Intestine and Stomach Meridians. And guess what it can do? It can expel parasites (tape worms, round worms, schistosomiasis), alleviate stomach pain. Ya, don't you ever look down on pumpkin, my friend. And no, don't you ever dare throw away all your pumpkin seeds again.

Gosh, that's a lot to say for today. Err... and I'm tired. I reckon I need some Winter-worm, Summer-Grass. :-)

I'll leave the rest for the next posting.
Till then, good night!