It grows in several parts of China, such as Guangdong, Sichuan, Fujian and Yunnan, said Ms Lam Man Sze, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner at Ma Kuang Healthcare Group.
The leaves of the plant are commonly used to brew tea, she said, while its stem is used in TCM prescriptions.
It is said that this herb, known as jiaogulan in Chinese, contains four times the amount of saponins found in ginseng.
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