Peach gum = cheap bird's nest? Is it really that magical?

In the spring, peach blossoms bloomed quietly, peach trees were covered with pink coats again, and peach gum, a natural food known as "bird's nest on trees", quietly returned to people's vision. The crystal clear peach gum is not only popular for its unique appearance and taste, but also for its "nourishing and beautifying" legend, making it a "net celebrity" in the health industry.

Is peach gum really as magical as the rumors say? How is it produced and what nutritional value does it have? Let us unveil the mystery of peach gum and explore its true face.

Image source: Pixabay

01What is peach gum?

In fact, the origin of peach gum is not mysterious. Just like rubber trees secrete rubber and pine trees secrete rosin, peach gum is a gelatinous substance secreted by peach or mountain peach when the bark is damaged. Similar situations also occur on cherry trees, apricot trees, plum trees and other fruit trees in the Rosaceae family. If we observe carefully, it is easy to find peach gum on the trees in spring and summer when peach trees grow vigorously.

As the hometown of peaches, ancient Chinese people noticed peach gum very early. However, peach gum was not used for food at first, but as a kind of plant glue, mainly used to bond objects or as a binder for pigments. Peach gum has good viscosity, is easy to obtain, and has a simple production process, so it is one of the most common natural adhesives in ancient my country.

Archaeological discoveries show that peach gum was used to glue bone blades together at the Yuanyangchi site in Yongchang, Gansu, which is more than 4,000 years old. There is also a record in "Collected Works of Wang Youjun of Jin" from the Eastern Jin Dynasty that "Peach gum is easy to get, can it be less?", which shows that peach gum was widely used in ancient times.

02Eating peach gum = nourishing?

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, peach gum was used as a material for magicians to cultivate immortality and make elixirs, and people began to take it. Many medical books of later generations also recorded peach gum. The Compendium of Materia Medica recorded that "when peaches are lush, cut the bark with a knife, and the gum will overflow after a long time. It is harvested, soaked in mulberry ash soup, and dried before use." The way to eat it is no different from today.

It is said that Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty often selected "peach gum, saponin, rice and white fungus soup" as her personal skin care tonic. Therefore, peach gum has been named "beauty-care product", "edible facial mask" and "cheap bird's nest".

Although it has a big name, if we analyze the ingredients of peach gum, we will find that there is no unique nutritional component in peach gum: in addition to a small amount of protein, polyphenols and inorganic elements, the remaining 80% of peach gum is polysaccharides, especially D-arabinose, rhamnose and galactose, which are also common in many other foods. They give peach gum its chewy characteristics, and are also the source of its "nutritious" properties that many people believe.

However, for us humans, the body lacks the digestive enzymes corresponding to these polysaccharides, so these polysaccharides cannot be absorbed and decomposed by our intestines. They will be excreted in the same way they are eaten. Therefore, peach gum plays more of a role as dietary fiber, which has the effects of increasing satiety, promoting gastrointestinal motility and relieving constipation.

The World Health Organization has given clear recommendations on dietary fiber intake, that is, the daily intake per person should be between 25 and 35 grams, which can help prevent cardiovascular disease, diabetes and a series of other health problems. However, in reality, most people's diets cannot achieve this goal. From this perspective, the polysaccharides in peach gum, as dietary fiber, do help the body to a certain extent. Especially today when people generally have overnutrition, the satiety produced by peach gum, which "does not make you fat", can reduce the intake of other foods.

However, if we add a lot of sucrose or honey while consuming peach gum, which makes our body take in too much energy, it would be a bit "not worth the loss".

03 Pick it yourself? No!

Image source: Pixabay

When choosing to buy peach gum, everyone should pay attention to buying products with food production units and related information through regular and reliable channels. Do not buy "three no" products, and do not pick wild peach gum on the roadside by yourself. Because the peach gum collected by yourself will not only not increase nutrition, but also easily cause allergies or poisoning!

The essence of peach gum is the secretion produced by plants to accelerate wound healing. In other words, under normal circumstances, peach trees will not actively secrete peach gum. So when you find peach gum on a peach tree on the roadside, it means that the epidermis of the peach tree trunk is damaged and it is likely to be attacked by insects or pathogens. Naturally, peach gum may also contain harmful substances.

Not only that, because peach gum is very sticky, it is easy to absorb pesticides, car exhaust or pollutants in the air. Because of these uncontrollable factors, the quality of wild peach gum cannot be guaranteed. For the sake of health, we really don't need to take the risk of uncertainty to eat wild peach gum.

The transformation of peach gum from plant glue to "treasure in bowls" is due to people's pursuit of nature and health. But we also need to understand that no single ingredient can take on the responsibility of maintaining human health alone. Instead of being superstitious about the efficacy of peach gum, it is better to treat it as part of a healthy diet, enjoy its delicious taste, but not overly rely on its "tonic" effect, and maintain a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. This is a more effective "health secret".

Source: Chongqing Science and Technology Museum

Author: Quasimodo in the Garden, Master of Agronomy, science popularizer.

Audit expert: Li Chunli

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