An Exclusive Q&A with Dr. Heiner Fruehauf, PhD, LAc, founder of Classical Pearls

Join us for an exclusive Q&A with Classical Pearls founder Dr. Heiner Fruehauf, PhD, LAc, as he reveals how traditional wisdom and modern science intersect in Chinese herbal medicine. From the importance of true herb quality and the lost art of paozhi to the rediscovery of the rare red Baihe, Heiner sheds light on what gives formulas their authentic potency and depth. Dive deeper into his insights and uncover what makes Classical Pearls‘ approach unlike any other.

Question: What’s one common misconception about herbs you’d like to clear up?

Practitioners and students of Asian medicine often assume there is little difference in the medicinal quality of Chinese herbs. A bottle labeled Danggui simply contains Danggui, and Heshouwu can’t be anything other than what it says on the sticker. Pharmacologists, herb traders, and doctors in China, Korea, and Japan, however, are well aware that at least three different quality gradations exist for each common herb—gradations that must be specified in the process of producing effective herbal prescriptions.

Terroir specificity, age distinction, natural growing practices (wildcrafted or cultivated in near-wild conditions), pesticide-free agriculture, and mold-free storage are just a few of the qualifiers that can dramatically enhance an herb’s medicinal potency and contribute to its pharmacological designation as a “top-grade herb.” These are raw materials that are difficult to procure and tend to cost two to five times more than lower-grade, mass-produced, or genetically modified herbs.

While traditionally only the highest-quality herbs were exported overseas, the dynamics of the international Chinese herb market have changed fundamentally since the SARS epidemic. For the past 20+ years, it has most often been the lowest grades that find their way into products offered in the Western hemisphere, where consumers had grown accustomed to low herb prices during the years 1972–2002. This development has had a distinct impact on trust in the clinical potential of Asian medicine in general and the efficacy of Chinese herbs in particular.

Classical Pearls was founded specifically to restore the trust of Western practitioners in the clinical power of our medicine by providing only the highest-quality ingredients available at any given time on the mainland Chinese market.

Chinese herbs are designed to deliver bundles of vital energy, and the detectable amount of Qi in different herb gradations is far from negligible. Fritz Albert Popp, the discoverer of biophoton activity in living cells, measured more than 30 years ago that a wildcrafted or biodynamically grown apple contains 500–1,000 times more light than a mass-produced specimen of similar biochemical makeup!

Question: What traditional herbal wisdom do you wish more people knew about?

All substances in the Chinese materia medica possess multiple medicinal properties that can be emphasized, enhanced, and “turned on” by a variety of procedures—such as adjusting dosage, combining with other herbs that share similar functions, and employing the traditional practice of herbal processing known as paozhi.

Over the past 50 years, the practice of formulating Chinese herbal prescriptions has become increasingly simplified: most ingredients are dosed in similar fashion, herbs are combined based on biochemical constituents rather than alchemical energetics, and the time-consuming and cost-prohibitive practice of paozhi has largely been abandoned.

More than 75 years ago in China, at least half of the ingredients in a doctor’s prescription would have had paozhi specifications—for example, vinegar-treated Baishao, alcohol-rinsed Chuanxiong, clay-fried Baizhu, or Gancao baked in jujube flower honey.

As part of Classical Pearls’ mission to enhance the clinical efficacy of Chinese prescription science, our company has revived this time-honored practice by engaging Prof. Hu Changjiang, China’s premier expert in herbal processing, as a core member of our production team. Approximately 40% of the single ingredients in Classical Pearls products are now enhanced through traditional paozhi methods to achieve greater functional specificity and clinical potency.

Question: Which herb do you think is totally underrated and deserves a spotlight?

Baihe (Lily bulb). While we all learned in school that this herb tonifies the Yin of the Lung, it’s often forgotten that the root of certain Lilium species can also address a variety of mental–emotional disorders. The Jingui Yaolüe (Essentials from the Golden Cabinet) section of the Shanghan Zabing Lun (Treatise on Disorders Caused by Cold and Miscellaneous Diseases), for instance, contains an entire chapter entitled “Lily Disease,” featuring symptoms that closely fit modern descriptions of depression, anxiety, and other commonly seen conditions today.

It’s important to note, however, that the Heart and spirit-specific properties of Baihe are particular to the red varietal sourced from the root of Lilium speciosum, a genus that grows exclusively in the wild in the mountains of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou. In both China and the West, the only commonly available Baihe is the white-colored root of Lilium brownii, which is suitable for Lung conditions but has little or no effect on the Heart.

The red Baihe is more specifically referred to as Hong Baihe (“Red Lily bulb”)—or most interestingly as Yao Baihe (“True Medicinal Lily”)—and is almost certainly the species originally used for treating “Lily Disease.”

Classical Pearls has made painstaking efforts to sustainably wildcraft this “medicinal red” type of Baihe in the mountains of Yunnan Province and to include it in formulas that support the nervous system, such as Lightning Pearls, Spirit Pearls, and Ginkgo Pearls.