On Hong Jing Tian and the salidroside that only altitude makes
Our team is at 5,100 meters right now, on the plateau where Hong Jing Tian grows. The plant is standing there with them. The roots will not carry their full actives until Fall — that is when the team returns to harvest.
This is the first note in a series on the herbs we source — and how what arrives in the bag changes what a formula can do. I begin here because Hong Jing Tian's entire action is written into that altitude.
What's visible.
On the left: our Hong Jing Tian — Rhodiola crenulata from above four thousand meters on the Tibetan plateau. The root is dense, deeply reddish-brown, grooved along its length. The cut surface is fragrant and slightly resinous. The plant grew in thin air, cold soil, and hard sun.
On the right: Rhodiola from lower altitudes — what fills most Western Rhodiola supplements. Lighter in color, thinner, softer in the root, grown well below the plateau. The plant did not have to defend itself. It made less of what it makes to survive.
Why this changes the prescription.
Hong Jing Tian's characteristic constituent — salidroside — is what carries its adaptogenic and cardio-protective action. The compound accumulates in direct response to UV stress, hypoxia, and cold. High-altitude Hong Jing Tian can hold two to three times the salidroside of lowland material. A patient using Rhodiola for altitude tolerance, or for the fatigue that follows a viral crash, gets a fraction of the effect from a plant that never faced the altitude it needed. The response arrives immediatly to the plateau-grown material and quietly to the lowland substitute.
The research documenting Hong Jing Tian's altitude and hypoxia effects was done on true high-altitude material. If the response you read about is not showing up in your patient, the research is not exaggerating. The Rhodiola in most Western supplements was grown at a fraction of that elevation.
The formula it lives in.
Hong Jing Tian is one of the herbs in our Foot Soaks — delivering its adaptogenic, blood-moving, Qi-tonifying action through the deep vasculature of the feet, where transdermal absorption bypasses first-pass metabolism.
It is in our Foot Soaks.
With respect,
Dr. Lan
Your Herbal Pharmacist
Tibetan Foot Soaks
High-altitude Tibetan Hong Jing Tian, delivered through the feet.
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