How to identify poisonous wolfberry

According to medicine, wolfberry is sweet in taste and neutral in nature. It has the effects of nourishing the kidney and replenishing essence, nourishing the liver and improving eyesight, replenishing blood and calming the nerves, promoting fluid production and quenching thirst, moistening the lungs and relieving cough. It has significant effects on liver and kidney yin deficiency, blood deficiency and sallow complexion, tuberculosis and essence deficiency, soreness of the waist and knees, thirst and dry mouth, frequent urination and red tongue, dizziness, tinnitus, and blurred vision. However, in order to cater to people's consumption psychology, some unscrupulous merchants have come up with the idea of ​​dyeing inferior wolfberries to deceive lay consumers. According to the author's investigation at a wholesale market of medicinal materials, some wolfberries are bright red in color, and they lose color if you rub them lightly with your hands, but when you soak them in clean water, the water becomes as red as tomato juice.

How to identify dyed wolfberries?

According to professionals, the general characteristics of real wolfberry are: the fruit is spindle-shaped or oval, smaller at both ends, slightly flattened, the surface color is dark red but not bright, with irregular wrinkles, and slightly shiny; there is a raised style mark on the top and a white stalk mark at the base; the peel is flexible, the flesh is soft, and contains many light yellow-brown flat kidney-shaped seeds, which tastes sweet without sourness. It is understood that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued an announcement in May 2004, which set requirements for the quality and technical conditions that wolfberry planting technology and production and processing technology should have, and specifically mentioned that "sulfur fumigation or dyeing processing is strictly prohibited." However, driven by profit, the abuse of sulfur and pigments in dyeing wolfberries is still common in recent years. So, how should consumers distinguish the quality and authenticity of wolfberries?

Distinguish by color

The color of fresh wolfberries varies depending on their origin, but the color is very soft, shiny, and the flesh is plump; while dyed wolfberries are mostly old goods from previous years. From a sensory point of view, the flesh is of poorer quality and dull, but the appearance is very bright and attractive, so when buying wolfberries, be sure not to be greedy for the "color". In particular, the dyed wolfberries are all red, even the white dots on the wolfberry pedicles are red, while the normal wolfberry pedicles are mostly yellow or white. The wolfberry pedicles dyed with pigments are red, and those baked with sulfur are dark brown. Since wolfberries dyed with pigments are particularly afraid of water, it is recommended that you put a few wolfberries in water when purchasing them, or deliberately rub them with wet hands. If the color fades, it means that pigment has been used.

Distinguish by shape

Both Ningxia wolfberry and Inner Mongolia wolfberry are oblong in shape, but Ningxia wolfberry will float after being soaked in water, while Inner Mongolia wolfberry will sink, while Xinjiang wolfberry is round in shape, making it easy to distinguish. Among these types of wolfberries, those with large and full grains are of the highest quality. Because soaking in alum water will make the wolfberry grains larger, many businesses use this method. However, wolfberries soaked in alum are easy to identify. If you expose them to light, shiny crystal spots will appear on the surface of the medicinal material. In addition, "poisonous wolfberries" will feel sticky, while natural wolfberries are relatively dry.

Identify by smell

For wolfberries that have been fumigated with sulfur, you just need to grab a handful, cover it with both hands for a while, and then put it under your nose and smell it. If you can smell a pungent and choking smell, then you can be sure that it has been fumigated with sulfur.

Distinguish by taste

Ningxia wolfberry is sweet and tastes especially sweet, but there is a hint of bitterness in the throat after eating it; while wolfberry from Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and other places is a bit greasy in sweetness; wolfberry soaked in alum has the bitter taste of alum when chewed; as for wolfberry beaten with sulfur, the taste is sour, astringent and bitter.

Regular wolfberries also have different qualities

Even if they are all regular wolfberries, the quality will vary depending on their origin and processing methods. Generally, the color of premium wolfberries is dark purple-red and uniform, without blackheads; while the color of poor quality wolfberries is very uneven and has many blackheads.

Due to different geographical and climatic conditions, the varieties and appearances of wolfberries vary from place to place. Xinjiang wolfberry is round in shape, high in sugar content, purple in color, and the water turns red after soaking in water, so it is easy to sink; Inner Mongolia wolfberry is large, oblong, sweet, dark red, heavy naked seeds, slightly red after soaking in water, and easy to sink; Hebei wolfberry is relatively thin, long and flat, sweet and slightly sour; and authentic Ningxia wolfberry is large, thick, thin-skinned, sweet, bright red, light in soaked water, light naked seeds, easy to float after soaking in water, and has high medicinal efficacy.

In addition to different origins, the quality of wolfberries also depends on different processing methods. Currently, there are two main methods for processing wolfberry: one is drying and the other is sun drying. Drying requires a large amount of processing and is relatively costly, but it takes a short time and can better preserve the nutritional components of wolfberries; sun-drying is the process of using sunlight to dry most of the processed wolfberries. The color of dried wolfberries is very light and not as fresh as the naturally dried ones, but the nutritional value of sun-dried wolfberries is often not as high as that of dried ones.