Eucommia - The tonic herb for the back...

I was doing my grocery shopping today and I happened to wander into a organic food shop. As I scanned through the shelves, I saw a little package box nestled among other products which contains the tea bags of eucommia. Back in my home country, I often see this herb either sold in ready made soup packages or in traditional medicine shops. But I rarely see it in New Zealand (either this could be due to no demand or the small minded locals simply do not want to know about it). So without missing the chance, I grabbed it off the shelf and scurried to the counter before the lady who stood next to me had a chance to look at it.

Eucommia is one of the 50 most highly valued herbs in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). The scientific name of this wonderful herb is Eucommia ulmoides. It is a tree native to China. The Chinese name for the herb originated from an old tale; once there was a man by the name Du Zhong who took this herb and became enlightened; therefore, it was named after him. The plant is extinct in the wild, but is widely cultivated for its bark. It is also known as the only cold-tolerant rubber-producing tree. The other names of eucommia are "Gutta-percha tree" or "Chinese rubber tree", but these names are nonetheless downright misleading because is not related to either the true Gutta-percha tree nor to the rubber tree.

The part of the plant commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine practice is the trunk bark, which is stripped off the tree in large segments. The leaves are usually used to brew tea. The extracts of eucommia are anti-hypertensive, anti-complementary, anti-oxidative, and anti-gastric ulcer effects, and promoting collagen synthesis, accelerating granuloma formation, and other pharmacological effects. Water extracts of eucommia leaves have been reported to have potent antioxidant and anti-mutagenic effects.

In terms of medicinal purpose, eucommia is used to treat pain in the lower back and knees, strengthening the back, supplements the entire body, boosts the qi, supplements the "yang", fortifies the sinews and bones, confer strength and flexibility to the ligaments and tendons, anti-aging, eliminates genital damp itch and help regulate blood pressure. Apart from that, it is believed to be a safe and effective sex tonic too... :p

So anyway, here are some of the recipes that uses eucommia as ingredient:-

Roasted Eucommia-Marinated Chicken Wing

Ingredients:

• 2 pieces of chicken wings
• 2 pieces of lemon
• 4 cups of eucommia tea,brewed
• 3 rice wine

Procedure:

1. Pour eucommia tea and rice wine into a big bowl(case).Place chicken wings and marinate in it.Place the bowl(case) in refrigerator one night.
2. On the 2nd day, take out the bowl and put the chicken into the oven. Roast until thoroughly cooked. Serve with lemon.

Chicken wing meat will become more tender and with better flavour after marinating in eucommia tea.

Eucommia Tonic Soup - (For mothers who have terrible backaches after delivery. This tonic helps strengthen the lumbar region.)

Ingredients:

• 50g black beans, pan-fried without oil
  
• 20g Tu-Chong / duzhong (Eucommia)
• 10g Wai-san / huaishan (Dioscorea)
• 10g Qi-zhi (Chinese Wolfberries)
• 5g Longan flesh
• 500g Meat Bones

Procedure:

1. Scald the bones in Boiling water for 3 minutes.
2. Rinse all herbs.
3. Put all ingredients in crock pot
4. Fill 1/2 full with HOT water.
5. Boil for 3 hour before drinking warm.

Kidney tonic soup (serves 3 to 4)

Ingredients:

• 300g lean meat
  
• (chicken or pork)
  
• 11g duzhong (eucommia bark)
  
• 9g niuxi (achyranthes root)
  
• 10g bajitian (morinda root)
  
• 10g huangqi (astralagus)
  
• 15g dangshen (codonopsis root)
  
• 10g gouqi zi (Chinese wolfberry)
  
• 10g longyan rou (dried longan)
  
• 5 rice bowls water

Procedure:

1. Put all ingredients into a pot and add water.
2. Bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for three to four hours. Serve hot.

Caution:- Pregnant women should not take this soup. Invigorating blood and Qi might be rather harmful for foetuses.


Stewed Pork Kidney with Eucommia (to replenish kidney qi and supplement the "yang" in the body)

Ingredients:

• 2 Pig’s Kidney
• 15g Eucommia Bark
• 30g Walnut

Procedure:

1. Cut the pig’s kidney into two parts, remove the renal calyces and wash them clean.
2. Stew the pig’s kidneys together with Eucommia bark and walnut until they are done.
3. Remove the Eucommia bark and walnut kernels.