1: the color and aging of moxa.
First of all, let's learn how moxa sticks are made. The moxa stick is made by crushing moxa and repeatedly screening moxa rolls. In those days, wormwood was green in color and rich in flavor. At that time, the wormwood extracted from wormwood was also turquoise, turquoise and black, with a strong taste. After 1 years of storage, wormwood gradually changed from turquoise to yellow, which is Ai Chen. The wormwood extracted from Ai Chen is khaki, containing a small amount of turquoise and blue-black petiole fiber particles. So you buy 3-,5-and 7-year-old moxa sticks in a store. When you receive the goods, the color is green or blue-black. It must be Ai, not Ai.
Some netizens asked: Why is there a small amount of green and black impurities in your good Ai? Shouldn't a good moxa be golden yellow without impurities? In the spirit of respecting wormwood, I tell you, this is what wormwood looks like. As a plant, wormwood has different parts such as mesophyll, vein and petiole, just as people have skin, meat, bone and hair. After the production is completed, each part has a different color and posture. As far as the current feeding level in China is concerned, no matter how carefully processed, there will always be a little stem fiber of wormwood, which is commonly known as "impurity". It is impossible to have no "impurities" at all! It is even more impossible to extract golden wormwood from khaki wormwood. Many merchants claim that there are no impurities at all, pure gold moxa sticks, either the seller is bragging or the moxa sticks have been smoked with sulfur! So those golden yellow ones are dazzling, and there is no "impurity" in them. Everyone should buy carefully!
Now there are three, five and seven years of moxa sticks everywhere in the market. In fact, they are basically 1-2 years old. The real age of 3 is hard to come by, and the age of 5 or 7 is simply a fantasy!
Not to mention, the storage of wormwood in Chen Ben will increase exponentially within one year. Another big problem is that wormwood is easy to catch fire and spontaneously ignite when it is piled up for a long time. How many manufacturers can risk fire to store wormwood for five years and then make wormwood for seven years? And the wormwood that has been stored for so many years is sold only when it is made into moxa sticks, which costs 3 yuan each? Do you think this is possible? Moreover, everything has a shelf life, and wormwood is no exception. The efficacy of wormwood is valid for 4 years. After 4 years, various effective components of wormwood gradually evaporated. Those wormwood that have been stacked for 5 years and 7 years have evaporated very little. What does the moxa stick made of wormwood do?
2. The purity and proportion of wormwood.
First understand the meaning of the proportion of wormwood, such as 30: 1. 30: 1 refers to folium artemisiae argyi extracted from 30 kg of folium artemisiae argyi 1 kg, which is an index of the fineness of folium artemisiae argyi and an important coefficient of the quality of folium artemisiae argyi. The higher the proportion, the more delicate the moxa is. The higher the proportion of wormwood, the lighter the smoke, the milder the firepower and the better the air permeability when burning. The wormwood ash is not easy to fall off when burning, and there is no danger of falling sparks and scalding the wormwood ash. The lower the proportion of impurities in wormwood, the more straw particles, the greater the smoke when burning, the drier the firepower and the worse the penetration. When burning, it will produce deflagration, and Mars and moxa ash will fall everywhere, which is easy to burn people. So people are pursuing a high proportion of moxa sticks. Many businesses just grasp the psychology of consumers, exaggerate the proportion, and the proportion is getting higher and higher. As far as the domestic cashmere raising technology is concerned, the highest proportion coefficient is 35: 1. 30: 1 is the best of wormwood, and 35: 1 is the best of the best (that is, the legendary glory). Now the market is full of 40: 1, 45: 1, even 50: 1, 60: 1, 70: 1. This is the mentality that merchants grasp that consumers don't understand moxa sticks and think that the higher the proportion, the better the effect, so as to raise prices and make money! The same moxa sticks generally sell for 25: 1 and 30: 1. 2.3 yuan each. The standard 35: 1, 40: 1, 45: 1, 50: 1 can be sold to 4~ 10 yuan. The price varies greatly. Most merchants claim that the actual ratio of 35: 1, 40: 1 and 50: 1 is 30: 1, or even 25: 1. The claimed 30: 1 is actually 20: 1, or even 15: 1.
Let's put some scale contrast photos of moxa sticks for everyone. This photo was taken with an ordinary camera in natural light without any processing. Because of the sunshine, the color is a little brighter than the real thing.
The ratio was not completely released, and 30: 1 released two. A lot of gold moxa sticks sold at 35: 1 for 4 or 5 yuan on Taobao are actually like this. You can see that the color on the left is khaki, and the impurity on the right is a little less than that on the left, but the color is slightly bluish yellow, indicating that the same proportion produced by different manufacturers is slightly different, and it is normal to have differences. If the difference is large, it is not proportional. The rightmost one is 35: 1, which is called 40: 1, 45: 1 or even 50: 1 on Taobao. The larger the scale, the higher the price).
3. Everyone is most concerned about the most concerned price.
The cost of moxa sticks is very simple and transparent, that is, the cost of buying wormwood+storing wormwood+crushing and raising hair+rolling moxa sticks. Let's calculate the lowest cost for everyone.
Wormwood grows naturally in the ground. No matter which manufacturer buys wormwood, the price of bulk purchase is basically around a catty in 3.5 yuan. If it is pure wormwood, the price will double! Then air drying, drying, storing and aging. The cost of wormwood aged in general 1 year is at least one catty in 4 yuan, and the cost of wormwood aged in 2 years is at least one catty in 4.5 yuan. 30: 1 moxa stick is extracted by crushing 30 kg of folium artemisiae argyi 1 kg of moxa stick. According to the lowest cost of purchasing and storing moxa by the manufacturer, the cost of 30kg moxa is 120 yuan, and the cost of extracting 1 kg moxa and the remaining scraps is 1. Plus the cost of machinery, electricity, labor and loss, the cost of 1 kg 30: 1 moxa stick is at least 65 yuan (you can search the price of 30: 1 moxa stick and work out the cost of moxa stick yourself). According to the conventional specifications of moxa sticks, the length is 500px, the thickness is 45px, 1 kg, and about 30 moxa sticks can be rolled. Together with workers' wages and manufacturers' profits, a real 30: 1 moxa stick costs at least 2.23 yuan. After reading such a detailed cost calculation, do you still think that those moxa sticks that cost only 1 yuan but are marked with 30: 1 and 35: 1 are true? If it's only a false high proportion or the size of the moxa stick is reduced, it's still made of wormwood. What if it is made of other unknown raw materials?
You will never forget the fact that you will get what you give. The profit of moxa sticks is so low, and the price is so low compared with other items. How can there be such a big price difference between the same quality moxa sticks? Will merchants sell things below the production cost price?
4. About Artemisia argyi
In recent years, mugwort has been heated by merchants-mugwort is the best, and mugwort is better than ordinary mugwort. Is that really the case? What is wormwood? Artemisia argyi is produced in Qichun County, so why is it famous? Qichun is the hometown of Li Shizhen, a famous Chinese medicine doctor in history, and is famous for Li Shizhen and other famous scholars quoting mugwort leaves in ancient books. Many merchants use this to speculate on mugwort, claiming that it is the best mugwort, and the effect of using mugwort strips is good. Scientific research has proved that the only difference between mugwort and common mugwort is that the output of mugwort in the same unit is higher than that of other mugwort. It's not that mugwort leaves are more effective than other mugwort leaves. Moreover, mugwort leaves are only produced in Qichun county, so how can a little local mugwort leaves supply such a large market demand? How many of the overwhelming mugwort leaves on the market are real?
Through the inside story of moxa sticks revealed above, we can sum up several methods to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of moxa sticks:
1, look at the color of moxa: good moxa is khaki, with a very small amount of green and black stalks and fine particles. Inferior moxa is cyan and blue-black, and the stalks are much larger.
2, smell the smell of moxa sticks: good quality moxa sticks smell fragrant and light, not pungent, poor quality moxa sticks taste strong and pungent, and worse moxa sticks have a musty smell.
3. Touch the texture of moxa: Good moxa feels soft and delicate, while poor moxa feels rough. Good moxa is easy to hold together, and even if the wrapping paper is torn off, it will not be completely scattered. And poor Ai, the wrapping paper fell apart as soon as it was torn.
The following figure is 5: 1, 10: 1,? Compared with 30: 1, the quality of wormwood can be distinguished at a glance.
4, feel the fire of moxa sticks: good moxa sticks are soft but not firm, and have strong penetration. Inferior moxa sticks are big in fire, weak in penetration and easy to burn.
5. Look at the burning speed: Because the moxa with a high proportion is delicate and fluffy, the moxa with a relatively low proportion has much less impurities, so the moxa with a high proportion burns faster than the moxa with a low proportion? .
This is often misunderstood by many people, who think that this kind of moxa stick burns too fast and is not durable. As we all know, the effect of flame-resistant moxa sticks is much worse than that of flame-resistant moxa sticks. Isn't the purpose of moxibustion to achieve the effect of treating diseases and preserving health? Just like a cotton ball, a cotton ball mixed with stones and sand. When they burn together, they must be pure cotton balls that burn quickly.
6. Look at the ashes after burning moxa sticks: The ashes after burning moxa sticks with good quality are gray, delicate and smooth to the touch, and difficult to scatter, while the ashes after burning moxa sticks with poor quality are dark gray, scattered everywhere and rough and granular to the touch.