In ancient times, there were no scientific techniques today, and various scientific methods could be used to analyze the components of various fruits, vegetables and herbs to understand their specific value. More is to verify their effects by tasting them, such as Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs, in order to test the characteristics of various herbs.
In addition, there is a kind of judgment through the performance of various animals after eating, it seems that sheep are very good at this, such as sheep eating coffee beans, can become excited; sheep eat sheep flowers, will bow and die; sheep eat epimedium, will increase the number of estrus. The role of these wild fruits and wild grasses has been used since it was discovered, because it has been proved by scientific testing that it does have such an effect.
In China, the role of Epimedium is widely recognized with more and more people using it, which has strengthened its status and become the main material of many medical recipes. Since its discovery during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it has been medicinal for more than 1500 years, and has always been a medicinal material in great demand, especially in recent years, it has developed into a commonly used Chinese herbal medicine, with an annual demand of about 3500 tons (2018 data).
It should be known that Epimedium is a perennial herb, and the medicinal part is neither a fruit nor a root, but a vine and leaf that do not account for weight, and it is dried before it is medicated, which shows its demand.
In fact, the shape of Epimedium is not prominent, the leaves are ovate or broad ovate is its main feature, Epimedium is often grown in the forest, shrubland or hillside wet places, distributed in Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan, Shanxi, Henan, Hubei and other places, if you do not recognize it, otherwise it is difficult to be found.
In addition, the growth rate of Epimedium is not slow, under normal circumstances, it can be medicated in two years, so as long as the wild resources of Epimedium are properly mined (not uprooted), they can be harvested every other year, which is relatively rich in resources. It is only due to the factors of the growing environment that it is more labor-intensive to want to harvest a large number of Goat Weeds.
In fact, most of the plants that have been found to be valuable, as long as they can be planted, will often be invested, but the requirements of Epimedium on the growth environment, it is difficult to plant a large number of plants in the wild, and planting in greenhouses will increase the cost of planting. And before 2010, the price of Epimedium was only about 4 or 5 yuan / catty, and no one would think about planting it.
By 2014, the price of Epimedium also failed to break through 15 yuan / catty, farmers' willingness to plant is not strong, and in addition to domestic production, North Korea will also export a lot of Epimedium every year to meet domestic demand, so the price has been in a tepid state.
It was not until after 2015, with the continuous increase in market demand, the price of Epimedium gradually rose, from about 10 yuan / catty all the way up to about 30 yuan / catty at the beginning of this year. And since the beginning of the year, due to the obstruction of imports, the supply of Epimedium has not been able to meet the market demand for a while, and the price has soared, and now it has risen to a historical high price of 40 yuan / kg, and the merchants do not seem to be intimidated by such a high price, and there is still a demand to buy, like a feeling of sought-after goods.
In fact, the merchants are not ignorant of costs, but have their own calculations, because the artificial cultivation of Epimedium has not been successful so far, and wild resources have been reduced year after year under the influence of some farmers' early harvesting and indiscriminate digging, uprooted destructive harvesting.