Jiaogulan: The “Secret of the South”

Why the “Immortality Herb” was unknown to ancient scholars

Jiaogulan is now acknowledged as perhaps the most health-giving herb in all of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), but this was not always so. For thousands of years, this remarkable plant was unknown to TCM practitioners. In fact, the earliest written description of jiaogulan came only in the late 14th Century, and although that may seem like ancient history to us in the West, 700 years by Chinese standards is almost like yesterday! Even when jiaogulan was described in that first Ming Dynasty text, it was confused with another, wholly unrelated medicinal plant, and further descriptions in later textbooks did not give accurate accounts of its properties. Perhaps because of the confusion and inadequate descriptions, jiaogulan was virtually ignored and was little used in TCM formulas and prescriptions.

Besides the confusion, there was another good reason for jiaogulan’s lack of mainstream acceptance—geography. The ancient founders of TCM were an elite group of physicians andacademicians, most of whom had been appointed to the Emperor’s court in Beijing in the north of China. They chose their herbs, therefore, from those familiar plants that grew in the northernand central parts of the vast country, a region that is known as the “ancient domain” of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It would have been virtually
impossible in those days for the herbal scholars to travel outside the ancient domain to the nearly
inaccessible mountain forests of southern China where jiaogulan was grown.

Even had there been a means of traveling to the South, the ancient herbalists might well have
chosen not to venture there. As elite scholars, they may very well have believed that there was nothing
left for them to learn, especially from unschooled mountain folk. And yet, those good people of the
southern mountains knew something that all of the schooling in the world could not teach—they
understood the incredible power of jiaogulan, the twisting vine with five-leafed clusters that they
lovingly called xiancao, the “Immortality Herb.” Today, with the introduction of Jule of the Orient,
FreeLife invites the whole world to share in the tremendous health and longevity benefits of the
“Secret of the South.”