In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fo-Ti is one of the herbs used to nourish the heart and calm the spirit. It has red stems, heart shaped leaves and either white or pink flowers. The literal English translation of its name is “vine to pass through the night.” With a distinctive sweet yet bitter taste, fo-ti was thought to unblock the channels of energy through the body, allowing the escape of the pathogenic influences that cause generalized weakness, soreness, pain, and fatigue. Depending on the method of processing, there are four different types of Fo-Ti on the market: raw, cured, wine, and steamed. Raw and cured are the most used, and the ones mostly imported into the US. Our Fo-ti Powder is cured in a black bean sauce.