Herbalists Thrive in Honolulu
HONOLULU—You can get just about everything in Chinatown these days except maybe Yuk Yung.
Yuk Yung, according to one Chinatown herbalist, is elk antlers. Another says it is reindeer antler. In any event it is an antler of the deer family. It is full of calcium and protein and is said to be good for you.
Yuk Yung and scores of herbs, barks, and roots, once were imported from the Chinese mainland. But imports from Red China have been banned since 1950.
Just before the "trading with the enemy" ban, herb shop operators in Chinatowns all over the United States stockpiled many of the soon-to-be-scarce items.
They stored great quantities of gum gow chek (the bark of a fern tree used for making a soup); tin tung a type of asparagus root used for alleviating inflamation of the lungs); (a tree root used for colds); tai got (a bark used to reduce fever) and many
others.
But that was 16 years ago. To maintain supplies today, the herbalists are turning to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
In San Francisco recently, Chinatown residence were able to buy legally many of the medicinal herbs which come from behind the bamboo curtain. U.S. Customs had auctioned off many herbs seized from persons smuggling them in from Red China.
John D. Williams, assistant district director for the Honolulu office of U.S. Customs, said Customs has not had a major auction of seized Chinese herbs in Honolulu for four or five years, although small quantities of herbs are periodically sold at auction along with other seized articles.
"We seize about 100 pounds of herbs a year here," Williams said. "The last big single seizure in Honolulu was five years ago when we took about 100 pounds from a man's store and house."
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CHINATOWN NEWS, MAY 3, 1966