How to distinguish the authenticity of Maca

Because maca has great medicinal value and practical value, we can often come into contact with it in our lives. It can help improve the body's immunity, regulate hormones, and help alleviate various symptoms of kidney deficiency in men. But you should also learn to distinguish whether maca is genuine or fake. This way you can use it with more confidence, and below is a detailed introduction to some methods and techniques for correctly distinguishing the authenticity of maca.

First, fresh maca fruit

Fresh maca fruit is the most original maca fruit, and generally there is less adulteration. However, some merchants still mix turnip (turnip, also known as rapeseed, also belongs to the Cruciferae family. It looks similar to maca and has green and purple varieties. Small turnip varieties weigh only a few dozen grams, similar to maca, but can only be eaten and have no medicinal value at all. They are usually used to make pickles.) with fresh maca fruit to pass them off as genuine. Identify maca by looking at its appearance. Fresh maca has many roots and many lines on the surface. Second, taste it. Pure maca has a light spicy taste.

Second, maca dried fruit

Dried maca fruit is easier to counterfeit than fresh maca fruit. Fake maca dried fruits are mainly made from turnips. The water content of turnips is much higher than that of maca. Therefore, the wrinkles on the surface of turnip dried fruits are obviously more than those on maca dried fruits, and the wrinkles are deeper, and sometimes they will crack. However, if freeze-dried, the difference is not very obvious. Well-made turnip freeze-dried fruits can basically be indistinguishable from the real thing.

(1) Fake Maca Dried Fruit

In addition to fake maca dried fruits, there are also inferior maca dried fruits, mainly including hollow maca dried fruits, dried maca dried fruits, sulfur-smoked maca dried fruits and dyed maca dried fruits.

(2) Hollow maca dried fruit with bulking agent

Many farmers and small-scale workshops do not have the ability to build large-scale drying areas, so fresh maca fruit can only be dried at high temperatures (over 80 degrees Celsius). Once dried, the precious macaene, macaamide, amino acids, vitamins, proteins and other substances in maca will be greatly damaged, and the glucosinolates will basically evaporate. The color of dried maca fruit is very uneven, and may even appear burnt black. If the drying equipment is not properly controlled, the maca will be heated unevenly, which will affect the quality of the maca. In this case, most unscrupulous merchants use sulfur fumigation to increase the color of the surface of yellow maca. The characteristics of dried maca fruits are: the yellow color of the dried fruits is very unnatural and uniform, and they usually look brighter in color and have a better gloss than authentic maca fruits. If you smell them carefully, you can smell a faint smell of sulfur. If you look closely, you may even find residues of sulfur fumigation in the wrinkles on the surface.

By understanding the methods introduced above, we should pay attention to the fact that if we follow these methods to identify when purchasing or consuming maca, we can safely use it to help regulate and solve some physical problems, improve male sperm quality and vitality, and fertility.