How expensive is Cordyceps sinensis?
On the shopping website, you can see nearly 10 gram, 6000 yuan, which is more expensive than the same weight of gold.
How "complementary" is Cordyceps sinensis?
Turn on the phone and search, and all the results are "enhancing immunity and fighting cancer", which sounds very "nourishing".
However, all this is just a "Chinese-style" scam.
Cordyceps sinensis, is it really worth that much money?
1974 The price of Cordyceps sinensis in Qinghai was around 28 yuan/kg, while the price of gold at that time was about 1 1 RMB/g, which was more than 390 times that of Cordyceps sinensis.
The first breakthrough in the price of Cordyceps sinensis was after the reform and opening up.
1990 or so, the average price of Cordyceps sinensis rose to 1000 yuan/kg. If we don't consider the fluctuation of the price of gold and the exchange rate of RMB against the US dollar, the price ratio of gold to Cordyceps sinensis has dropped from 390 times in the 1970s to 70 times.
If the price increase of Cordyceps sinensis in 1980s was only the natural demand of the market, then the subsequent "Ma Jiajun" gave this price increase a shot in the arm.
In the early 1990s, a group of female middle-distance and long-distance runners, led by Ma, sprang up suddenly, and the "Ma Jiajun" of 1993 broke 66 national and even world long-distance running records.
At that time, Ma said that the key to the success of "Ma Jiajun" was to add turtle essence, cordyceps sinensis and other health-care and nourishing foods to the daily diet.
Affected by this, there is a nationwide upsurge of eating nourishing food.
▼ The famous "Ma Jiajun" was finally destroyed by banned drugs.
Although Ma Jiajun soon fell into the drug ban storm and disappeared from then on, it was found that it was not the unique traditional tonic that helped Ma Jiajun win the championship, but the stimulant developed by modern science.
But this did not stop the soaring prices of various health care products. After only three years, the price of Cordyceps sinensis in 1993 has doubled from 1990 to 1000 yuan/kg, reaching 2000 yuan/kg.
From 65438 to 0995, the state released the restrictions on the private operation of Cordyceps sinensis, and since then, the invisible hand of the market has started to push the price of Cordyceps sinensis to rise steadily year by year.
With the outbreak of SARS in 2003, the price of Cordyceps sinensis ushered in the first "qualitative" leap.
This panic that covers the whole people makes people have unrealistic ideas about their health, and all health products that can "enhance immunity" have become life-saving straws.
After SARS, the average price of Cordyceps sinensis rose from several thousand yuan/kg to 1.6 million yuan/kg under the pretext of this wave of panic and "things are scarce", and officially entered the ranks of "luxury goods".
▼ The panic caused by SARS has become the driving force for soaring prices.
After arriving at the altar, the experience of Cordyceps sinensis is similar to that of many well-known "artificial luxuries". It is not only an edible tonic, but also a status symbol.
By about 20 10, affected by natural disasters such as ecological damage and earthquakes, many cordyceps producing areas have reduced production, and the decline in supply has made the market of cordyceps rise again. At this time, the price of Cordyceps sinensis has reached 2 10000 yuan/kg, which is 2 10 yuan/g, while the price of gold in that year was about RMB/g in 280 yuan, and the price of Cordyceps sinensis was almost at this level.
It only took more than 30 years, and the hyped Cordyceps sinensis has been as expensive as gold.
You know, at 1974, a piece of 1 kg gold brick can buy half a ton of Cordyceps, but at 20 10, the same gold brick may not be able to buy the same weight of Cordyceps.
▼ Comparison of World Gold Price and Cordyceps sinensis Price Trend in Key Years
What exactly is Cordyceps sinensis?
There is a word called "zombie", which is a half-dead creature in science fiction movies.
In fact, it is quite appropriate to use zombies to describe Cordyceps sinensis.
Zombies are the living dead who are inexplicably controlled, and Cordyceps sinensis is the "living dead insect" of insects (bat moth larvae) controlled by Cordyceps sinensis.
Cordyceps's life is spent like this:
In summer, bat moth larvae lay eggs on the ground, and after a month or so, they become larvae and drill into the wet and soft soil layer. Cordyceps in the soil parasitizes the larvae, grows in the larvae and eats them until they die.
After a winter, when the next spring comes, the mycelium of fungi begins to grow. When it grows on the ground in summer, Cordyceps can spread its branches and leaves and breed more "bugs and zombies".
In fact, it is not uncommon for this fungus to infect and form strange creatures. At present, humans have discovered more than 500 kinds of Cordyceps sinensis, and Cordyceps sinensis is only one of them.
▼ Cordyceps militaris (Tussah)
▼ Cicada (Golden Cicada)
▼ Cordyceps ants
Is Cordyceps really that magical?
Unlike many people's imagination, there is no place for Cordyceps sinensis in the history of nourishing medicinal materials in China for thousands of years, and even Cordyceps sinensis is not recorded in China's traditional herbal masterpiece Compendium of Materia Medica.
Until1757,200 years ago, Wu, a folk physician in Qing Dynasty, added Cordyceps sinensis to his personal book Materia Medica and commented on Compendium of Materia Medica, which opened the door for Cordyceps sinensis to enter the room.
After entering the new century, with the soaring price of Cordyceps sinensis, the academic research on Cordyceps sinensis has gradually deepened.
However, over the years, almost all studies have failed to prove that Cordyceps sinensis contains any special ingredients beneficial to human body.
At first, cordycepic acid was considered as the most famous symbolic component in Cordyceps sinensis, which was vigorously promoted by merchants.
However, it was soon discovered by academic circles that cordycepic acid is a common mannitol and a very common chemical raw material.
Mannitol is widely used in various foods and medicines, and there is mannitol for constipation in Kaisailu.
▼ A large bottle of mannitol is only a few dollars.
Later, Cordyceps sinensis was publicized to contain cordycepin, a rare adenosine active substance, which may have anticancer effect.
But from 20 10 to now, many professional scientific research institutions have published research results, which prove that Cordyceps sinensis can not be detected.
Among them, Wang Chengshu's research group of Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology of China Academy of Sciences published the latest research results in Cell Chemical Biology, a sub-issue of the internationally renowned magazine Cell 20 17+00, which once again confirmed that Cordyceps sinensis does not contain the so-called anticancer component-cordycepin.
Long-term consumption of Cordyceps sinensis may lead to arsenic poisoning.
Not only scientific research institutions have poured cold water on it, but also the national food and drug regulatory agencies have been "singing the opposite" with the folk Cordyceps craze, mainly for safety reasons.
In 200 1 year, for the purpose of environmental protection, the Ministry of Health ordered to restrict Cordyceps sinensis, a national second-class protected species, as a raw material for health food.
In 2009, state administration of traditional chinese medicine organized an expert discussion, and also said that the safety data of Cordyceps sinensis used as food for a long time was not clear, "it is not recommended to use it as a food raw material for the time being".
On 20 10, AQSIQ joined in and officially issued the Notice on Cordyceps sinensis not being used as the raw material of ordinary food.
▼ Cordyceps sinensis cannot be used as a food raw material.
Because of the huge arsenic poisoning risk of taking Cordyceps sinensis, in 20 16, the State Food and Drug Administration of the United States removed Cordyceps sinensis from health care products, and Cordyceps sinensis could not even be mixed with health care products.
On the one hand, prices and market speculation, on the other hand, scientific research and official caution or even negative. Cordyceps sinensis, which has been pushed to the altar step by step for more than 30 years, has now become a "black household" hovering on the edge of food, medicine and health care products.
Raw is very common, expensive is unreasonable, the effect is not great, and eating too much is harmful. ...
If you or your family want to buy this product, please think twice.