How to take birch tears?

Birch tears are a liquid from the birch tree, also known as birch sap. The smell of birch tears is fragrant, and it has a slight pine fragrance. It also contains a large amount of trace elements and a variety of minerals. It has a good health care effect on the body. Regular consumption of birch tears can effectively achieve the effect of beauty and skin care. The method of taking birch tears can be brewed with boiling water, or boiled in water.

How to take Birch Tears?

Birch tears are rich in various fructose, amino acids, vitamins, biotin, minerals, etc. needed by the human body. It has anti-fatigue and anti-aging health benefits and can be taken with boiling water. But boiling it in water is more effective.

Growth environment

Birch trees like light and cannot tolerate shade. It prefers moisture and is not very demanding on soil. It grows well in fertile brown forest soil. It has strong germination ability and can sprout and regenerate on its own after felling. It grows fast, and in places with moderate site conditions, the annual growth can reach 1 meter, and it starts to bear fruit in about 15 years. Afforestation can be done by direct seeding or by planting seedlings. Direct seeding afforestation is carried out in places with fewer weeds and moister soil. The seeds are harvested and sown immediately after they mature in autumn. The seeds need to be soaked in warm water before seedling cultivation, and the seedlings can be planted when they are 40 to 50 cm tall. The best places for afforestation are burned areas, small logging sites, forest edge slopes or open spaces in the forest.

Distribution

It is distributed almost throughout China, with the largest number in the mountainous areas of Northeast, Northwest and Southwest. Among them, birch (see picture) is the most widely distributed, from Northeast China, North China to Northwest China and Southwest China. In addition, red birch is mainly distributed in North China and Northwest China, while big birch and black birch are mainly produced in Northeast China and North China. Betula altissima has a narrow distribution range and mainly grows in Changbai Mountain in Northeast China and Greater and Lesser Khingan Mountains. The Qugan birch forests in the high-altitude areas of Changbai Mountain constitute a unique landscape. Weeping birch is mainly distributed in Tianshan Mountains and Altai Mountains in Xinjiang. Alpine birch is mainly produced in Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet.

effect

Birch sap is rich in sugar, protein and other nutrients, which can easily cause microbial contamination and lead to spoilage. Birch sap can be stored for a short period of time after being harvested in a simple ice cellar or basement with a shade shed and a pit filled with ice and snow. When the temperature does not exceed 5°C, the juice can be kept fresh for 3 to 5 days.

Since birch sap has a low dry matter content (generally 0.5-1.2%) and the collection sites are all in forest areas, it brings certain difficulties to storage, transportation and utilization. Jiang Desen, Wei Ziyu, Li Qingsheng and others conducted research on the birch juice concentration process. After multi-stage filtration, the birch juice enters the vacuum concentration pot for concentration to obtain three specifications of concentrated birch juice with relative dry matter content of ≥ 3, ≥ 6, and ≥ 9%, which is convenient for birch juice storage and transportation.

Using natural birch sap as material, the contaminating microorganisms were isolated, cultured and preliminarily identified. It was found that natural birch sap and its beverages were contaminated with different amounts of bacteria, yeast, mold and actinomycetes. Among them, molds are the most numerous, followed by yeasts and bacteria, and actinomycetes are the least. On the basis of clarifying the distribution of contaminating microorganisms, several methods of controlling and inactivating microorganisms were studied and compared. Among them, the acid treatment of pH 2.0 failed to inactivate all contaminating microorganisms, while the use of 90℃ heating sterilization or membrane filtration technology can achieve ideal results. Chen Tieshan and Zhang Yuanmin added a small amount of sodium benzoate (1g/kg) to the birch sap after acceptance, and then added citric acid (1.5g/kg) to adjust the acidity so that the pH value is ≤3.5, and then added ascorbic acid (0.1g/kg) and sodium bisulfite (0.1g/kg) in proportion, which can achieve good antiseptic and fresh-keeping effects and can be stored at room temperature for 6 months. Huang Wenzhe and Wang Jianhua used preservatives to preserve birch sap and found that the preservative effect of adding a single preservative, sodium benzoate, was not as good as that of a compound preservative. The addition ratio of 0.03% benzoic acid, 0.03% ethyl paraben, and 0.05% sorbic acid was small in amount and the preservative effect was reliable.