China News Service, Chengdu, September 23 (Reporter He Xi) As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, special mooncakes from major universities have begun to take turns to dominate social networks. When Chinese herbal medicines, which have the same origin as medicine and food, meet traditional mooncakes, what kind of effects will they produce? At the Wenjiang Campus of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the "Yuanman Guixi Mooncake" created by Professor Shen Tao's research and development team has become popular in the market by relying on traditional Chinese medicine food nutrition ideas.
On the 23rd, team member Peng Xile told reporters that the original intention of making traditional Chinese medicine health mooncakes was actually very simple, just to bring traditional Chinese medicine culture into the daily lives of ordinary people. It coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional node. Taking advantage of the seasonal solar terms, we put the health-preserving concepts of traditional Chinese medicine into mooncakes, so that everyone can get in touch with the traditional food-nurturing culture while eating mooncakes.
"Autumn is very dry, and the Mid-Autumn Festival is also the autumn season, which emphasizes moisturizing, nourishing yin, and condensing lung qi." Peng Xile said that the mooncakes launched are not simply filled with medicinal materials. In terms of research and development, the team selected ingredients such as lily and dendrobium to nourish yin and moisturize dryness. But mooncakes themselves are high in oil and sugar. Even if the formula is processed to reduce oil and sugar, it is still easy to burden the spleen and stomach. For this reason, tangerine peel and chicken gizzard are added to the formula to help strengthen the spleen and digestion, while moisturizing and taking care of the movement and transformation of the spleen and stomach, striving to be replenishing without stagnation.
It is understood that the product has been launched as early as 2021, and has been quietly iteratively upgraded over the years. Peng Xile said that the team has been optimizing, trying to weaken the astringency of the medicinal materials, retaining the nutrition of the ingredients themselves, and the taste and compatibility plans are also constantly updated, while complying with the logic of traditional Chinese medicine compatibility while improving the taste of the public.
"The research and development behind the scenes is not done by one teaching and research department alone. The mooncakes launched have gathered the strength of multiple disciplines from the School of Pharmacy, the School of Basic Medical Sciences, and the School of Public Health. The entire team has teachers as guidance, and doctors and postdoctoral fellows are deeply involved." Peng Xile said that the public health department is responsible for health assessment, the School of Pharmacy sorts out the active ingredients of the ingredients, and prescription experts check the compatibility ideas, and multiple disciplines are twisted into a rope to polish the products.
Nowadays, there are many products on the market under the banner of "health food", and it often happens that the gimmicks outweigh the actual results. Talking about the confidence of their own products, Peng Xile said that they always insist on making compatibility within the theoretical framework of traditional Chinese medicine. They will not blindly pile up nourishing ingredients, but complement each other to nourish yin and strengthen the spleen. They pay attention to the balance of compatibility, rather than simply adding ingredients from the same source of medicine and food into food.
This year, market feedback far exceeded expectations, and order volume doubled. Faced with the booming sales, the team is even more grateful. "I'm glad that everyone is willing to accept traditional Chinese medicine and recognize the idea that medicine and food have the same origin. We also hope to continue to produce more products so that people can truly feel the nourishment brought by traditional Chinese medicine in their daily diet." Peng Xile said.
In the team’s view, it is now a general trend for traditional Chinese medicine to be adapted into daily life and food. People are paying more and more attention to ingredients and their own health. Products with the same source of medicine and food just meet this consumer demand, but the industry also faces many pain points. How to keep the core of TCM compatibility without turning it into a marketing gimmick is a question that practitioners need to continue to think about.
The popular Chinese medicine mooncake will not be the end of the team. Next, their research and development vision will not be limited to major festivals such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and Lantern Festival. Each of the twenty-four solar terms has corresponding health rules. The team plans to integrate the solar terms’ health care ideas into more food and medicine with the same origin, and penetrate the traditional Chinese medicine food culture into the diet throughout the year. At the same time, the team also reminded that mooncakes are seasonal delicacies after all. Even if they are added with ingredients from the same source of medicine and food, they are only nutritional supplements and cannot be used as medicine. You still need to eat them with some restraint.
It is reported that the school has produced a total of 156,000 health-preserving mooncakes this year. It only took half a month to complete all production, and so far they have all been sold out.
