Honghe Pueraria Powder

Honghe Pueraria Powder

　　Honghe Pueraria Powder is a specialty of Honghe County in the Honghe Prefecture of Yunnan Province. The high-quality Pueraria powder produced in Honghe gained acclaim when it was honored as an outstanding tourism product of the prefecture in 2008.

　　Hidden among the towering mountains of Honghe County is an unassuming perennial climbing vine, with its fuzzy opposite netted compound leaves and long vines either intertwining with each other or climbing surrounding shrubs. This plant is called Pueraria.

　　The edible part of Pueraria is mainly its tuberous root, which can be consumed raw or cooked, offering cooling and detoxifying benefits. When processed into starch, it becomes an excellent health food. Late autumn is the best season for harvesting Pueraria roots. People dig them up, process them into starch, and sell it in the market — turning it into a profitable business.

　　The longer the Pueraria plant grows, the thicker and larger its tuberous roots become. Roots that have not been harvested for five or six years can grow over one meter in length and weigh fifteen to twenty kilograms, making them quite laborious to unearth.

　　The process of making Pueraria powder is simple: first, wash and crush the roots, then stir them in water and filter to remove impurities. After the starch settles at the bottom of the container, drain the water, take out the starch, dry it in the sun, and grind it into powder — resulting in the snow-white Pueraria powder.