Fuling in the Qing Dynasty imperial palace: Uncovering its origins

Fuling (Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf) is a traditional fungal medicinal material. This study uses the "Imperial Fuling," used by the imperial court during the Qing Dynasty as an example, and applies modern technologies to trace its production origin, effectively supplementing the limitations of historical document research. This approach provides reliable evidence for investigating the application history of traditional medicines while supporting the conservation and promotion of regions producing high-quality medicinal materials.

This study was aimed at evaluating the efficacy of provenance tracing of medicinal residues to supplement and refine conclusions drawn from literature-based historical research, with the fungal medicinal material Fuling serving as a case study.

We first examined the spatial distribution patterns of trace elements in the sclerotium (Bai Fuling) of P. cocos and identified 19 elements with relatively stable distribution. Subsequently, we successfully traced the production origin of Imperial Fuling through three lines of evidence: a multi-element origin-tracing model, strontium isotope maps, and historical document research.

We narrowed the source area of Imperial Fuling to an area of approximately 1015 km².

This study provides material evidence for the authentic production of Fuling in the Dabie Mountains region during the Qing era, challenging the entrenched notion that high-quality Fuling originated exclusively in Yunnan Province. Our results offer critical scientific support for conserving and promoting the Dabie Mountain region as a traditional medicinal hub. This study also represents an innovative breakthrough in the archaeological tracing of ancient medicinal herbs within the field of bencao-archaeology.