Shaxi Herbal Tea

Shaxi Herbal Tea

　　“Shaxi Herbal Tea” is a traditional famous medicine produced by Zhongshan’s “Huang Chao Shan Tang,” the predecessor of Guangdong Yihetang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a time-honored Chinese brand. With a history of about 100 years, it serves as an effective home remedy for seasonal colds, fevers, and cold-related illnesses. Most elderly locals in Guangdong and overseas Chinese are familiar with Shaxi Herbal Tea. In addition to its therapeutic effects, Shaxi Herbal Tea can also be consumed as a cool drink in summer, helping to relieve heat, dissipate internal warmth, promote saliva production, and quench thirst.

　　The founder of Shaxi Herbal Tea was Huang Hui, born in 1861 in Tayuan Village, Shaxi, Zhongshan. Coming from a poor family, he began supporting himself at the age of 15 by working as a rickshaw puller. Unlike other rickshaw pullers, Huang Hui had a passion for collecting Chinese herbal medicines during his youth. He often took advantage of his travels to gather herbs from different regions, using them to treat the illnesses of impoverished families. Wherever he went, he earned praise from the locals.

　　In the 10th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1885), Huang Hui developed and compiled an effective prescription specifically for treating colds and fatigue-related colds. He then began practicing medicine under a signboard, personally gathering and processing herbs, and selling the medicine in paper bags labeled “Shaxi Cold Remedy Holy Tea, Made by Huang Hui.” At that time, people referred to it as Huang Hui’s Herbal Tea. After the liberation, because it was commonly believed that “all diseases stem from colds,” and this herbal tea was particularly effective against colds, it became known as Shaxi Cold Tea. Due to its remarkable efficacy, long queues would form at Huang Hui’s small pharmacy to buy the tea. As demand grew, so did his prosperity—he transformed from a poor rickshaw puller who did odd jobs and pulled carts into a wealthy man who rode in a sedan chair. After becoming wealthy, Huang Hui sent his son, Huang Guoping, to university to study medicine. Upon graduation, Huang Guoping returned to Zhongshan to practice medicine. He inherited his father’s business, renamed the small pharmacy “Huang Chao Shan Tang,” and changed the name of the tea to “Cold Remedy Holy Tea.” To honor Huang Hui, later generations named the tea after his hometown—Shaxi Herbal Tea.

　　Huang Hui’s small pharmacy was eventually transformed into the Shaxi Herbal Tea Factory in Zhongshan County after the liberation. It was initially a subsidiary of the Shaxi Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Although production was industrialized, the output remained very low, far from meeting public demand. In 1975, the Shaxi Commune established a dedicated factory to take over the Shaxi Herbal Tea Factory. In 1984, the factory was renamed Shaxi Pharmaceutical Factory. In 1990, it was officially approved to be renamed Zhongshan Shaxi Pharmaceutical Factory in Guangdong Province. At the beginning of the new century, the factory underwent restructuring and adopted the distinctly medicinal-sounding new name “Yihetang.” In 2003, it was approved to be renamed Guangdong Yihetang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Over the years, “Yihetang” has adhered to the principles of technological innovation and quality excellence, growing into a modern medium-sized pharmaceutical enterprise equipped with advanced production and testing facilities. The century-old cold remedy “Shaxi Herbal Tea” now utilizes modern technology to extract active ingredients, producing “Shaxi Herbal Tea Granules” and “Shaxi Herbal Tea Bag Tea.” These products have been included in national standards by the Ministry of Health, approved by the National Medical Products Administration as protected varieties of traditional Chinese medicine, and along with nine other products—including Golden Rooster Tablets and Stone Expelling Granules—have won the “National Award-Winning Drugs Clinical Application Trust Evaluation Survey Trusted Drug” award. “Yihetang” was honored with the title of “Time-Honored Chinese Brand” by the Ministry of Internal Trade of the People’s Republic of China in 1993, and again by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China in 2006.

　　Shaxi Herbal Tea is actually not “tea” in the conventional sense—it is more accurately described as a type of traditional Chinese medicine. It is brewed from Chinese herbs and has no side effects, offering the benefit of clearing heat and detoxifying the body. Given the humid climate in Zhongshan, drinking herbal tea is as common as drinking water. Moreover, as taking medicine is often considered inauspicious in Zhongshan culture, it has always been referred to as “herbal tea.” Over time, the term “tea” has acquired a dual meaning—referring not only to ordinary tea but also to “medicine.” The main ingredients of Shaxi Herbal Tea include Ilex asprella, Spilanthes acmella, Syzygium odoratum, Jasminum flexile, and Solanum surattense. Aside from treating seasonal colds, bodily fatigue, bone pain, alternating chills and fever, chest congestion, and phlegm-induced wheezing, it also has a lesser-known benefit: treating conditions related to sexual exhaustion and nocturnal emission-induced colds. In modern medicine, the term “cold” is not used in these contexts, so these two effects have been removed from Shaxi Herbal Tea’s official description in national pharmacological standards.

　　Research has confirmed that Shaxi Herbal Tea possesses sedative, analgesic, sleep-inducing, and antibacterial properties. Administered at a dose of 10 grams per kilogram, it significantly prolongs the sleeping time of mice induced by pentobarbital sodium, indicating its inhibitory effect on the central nervous system. At a dose of 20 grams per kilogram, it markedly counteracts the writhing response in mice caused by acetic acid, demonstrating notable analgesic effects. The tea also shows a certain level of inhibition against Escherichia coli.