What are the methods to identify the authenticity of Cistanche deserticola?

I believe that everyone has never heard of Cistanche deserticola. This is a relatively common Chinese medicine, and it also belongs to the plant family. It is mainly used to help many diseases. For example, due to excessive work pressure, many women have amenorrhea, irregular menstruation, and insufficient blood volume. They can all be treated with Cistanche deserticola. However, many Cistanche deserticola sold on the market are fake. So what are the methods to identify the authenticity of Cistanche deserticola?

Cistanche deserticola, also known as Rousongrong and Dayun, is the fleshy stem of the Orobanchaceae plant Cistanche deserticola or Cistanche deserticola, Cistanche deserticola, etc. It is a commonly used tonic Chinese medicine and is known as the "Desert Ginseng". Cistanche is warm in nature, sweet, sour and salty in taste, and enters the kidney and large intestine meridians. It has the effects of nourishing the kidney and replenishing essence, moisturizing dryness and lubricating the intestines. It is used to treat male impotence, female infertility, leucorrhea, metrorrhagia, cold pain in the waist and knees, blood deficiency and constipation. In recent years, due to the shortage of medicine sources, some products on the market are impersonating Cistanche deserticola as Cistanche deserticola. Please be careful to identify them when using them.

Authentic Cistanche deserticola

Sweet Cistanche is flat and cylindrical in shape, slightly thinner and slightly curved at one end, about 10 to 30 cm long and 3 to 6 cm in diameter. The surface is gray-brown or brown, densely covered with thick fleshy scales arranged in a shingle-like manner. It is hard and slightly tough, the flesh is oily and not easy to break. The cross-section is brown with white spots and cracks. It has a faint odor and tastes slightly sweet. The shape of Cistanche saltwort is irregular, dark brown, soft in texture, with a salt frost on the outer surface. It has a faint smell but tastes salty.

Cistanche tubulosa

It is an irregular shape such as flat cylindrical, flat spindle, flat oval, flat round, etc., 6 to 8 cm long, 4 to 6.5 cm in diameter, with a reddish brown, grayish yellow brown or brownish brown surface, mostly twisted, densely covered with fleshy scales arranged in a slightly imbricate manner, dense on the upper part and sparse on the lower part, the tips of the scales have mostly broken off, and the remaining part is mostly more than 1 cm wide. The whole scale is slightly long triangle, about 1 cm high. It is heavy, hard, not tough, difficult to break, and has a granular cross-section. It is mostly gray-brown in color, and some have a black, hard, gelatinous outer ring. There are numerous dark brown dot-like vascular bundles, scattered irregularly, some with small cracks. It has a faint odor and tastes sweet and slightly bitter.

If we want to identify the real Cistanche, we still have to identify it based on its appearance, shape and color. However, many friends who are buying it for the first time don’t know much about it. First of all, we have to observe it based on its shape. The color of Cistanche is very peculiar, slightly sweet and a little bitter. Taste is also the most important identification method.