Journal
Chinese pharmacy
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Citrus Blossom: The Flower That Comes From the Same Fruit as the Peel
Dried citrus blossoms are the perfumed waste of the citrus harvest — the part that never becomes fruit.…
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Chicory: The Root That Disguises Itself as Coffee
Roasted chicory root makes a genuinely good coffee substitute, and the same root has been used in Chinese…
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Magnolia Bud: The Flower That Went Into a Patent
Xin Yi Hua has been used for blocked noses for two thousand years, and it is one of…
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Lily Flowers: A Delicate Bloom, and a Different Ingredient Entirely
Dried lily flowers are a pretty, mild infusion. The Chinese pharmacy item called Bai He is not the…
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Lotus: The Flower, the Seed, and the Root Are Three Different Herbs
A lotus petal makes a pale, faintly sweet, cooling cup. The seed makes a nutty one, and the…
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Safflower: A Flower for Colour, a Flower for Circulation, and a Warning
It bleeds a deep red-gold into water, it colours rice and dough, and it is one of the…
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Goji Root Bark: The Part of the Wolfberry Nobody Drinks
Everyone has heard of the goji berry. Di Gu Pi — the root bark of the same plant…
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Sang Bai Pi: The Inner Bark of the White Mulberry Tree
A pale, flavourless bark with one of the longest records in the Chinese pharmacopoeia. What it is used…
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Green Tangerine Peel: The Bitter Young Peel That Cuts Through Fat
Qing pi is the peel of an unripe tangerine, and it is the opposite of aged chen pi…
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Pomelo Peel: The Strongest and Driest of the Chinese Citrus Peels
Hua Ju Hong is the peel of the pomelo, and it is a blunt instrument compared with chen…
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Immature Bitter Orange: The Most Powerful Fruit in the Chinese Pharmacy
Zhi Shi is an unripe bitter orange, dried and cut, and it is the strongest of the qi-moving…
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Rose Hips: Two Species, One Family, and a Husk Full of Irritants
Ci Li and Ying Zi are both rose fruits from the Chinese pharmacopoeia, and both are covered in…
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