The whiter the dried lily is, the better it is.

In autumn and winter, many people who like to keep healthy will buy some dried lilies to cook porridge or soup in order to achieve the effect of nourishing yin and moistening the lungs. When buying, many people will try to choose dried lilies with a whiter color for convenience, thinking that such dried lilies should be cleaner. But is this really the case?

Dried lily is a product obtained by processing the roots of lily. After digging the lily out of the soil, it must first be washed with clean water to remove dirt, sand and other substances, and the lily that is not seriously damaged must be selected. Then the selected lily is peeled off petals one by one and continued to be washed. After the lily is washed, it needs to be heated in boiling water until the water boils again and then cooled. The cooled wet lily petals must be placed in a dryer for drying to obtain dried lily. Although fresh lilies are white and transparent, they will turn yellow due to oxidation after processing.

There are many ways to whiten yellow dried lilies, and sulfur fumigation is one of them. In order to make fresh lilies appear white or light yellow after being prepared into dried lilies, the boiled lilies are dried in the sulfur fumigation room after being half-dried. After the doors and windows are closed for fumigation for 10 hours, they are air-dried or dried using a heating dryer or other equipment. This is because sulfur is burned to form sulfur dioxide, which is a reducing agent that can be used for bleaching and decolorization, and also has antiseptic and sterilization effects. Therefore, the dried lilies fumigated with sulfur are not only more beautiful in color, but also have antibacterial and antiseptic characteristics to a certain extent.

Since sulfur dioxide can irritate the human body, for the sake of health, we should try to buy dried lilies that have not been smoked with sulfur. Since fresh lilies are oxidized to a great extent during the preparation process of dried lilies, the dried lilies will appear yellow-brown and dark brown, but will not have the sour smell of sulfur.

Therefore, the whiter the dried lily, the better. We can use a simple and easy-to-use method to choose to buy dried lily that has not been smoked with sulfur. When purchasing, we should try to avoid buying pure white or light yellow dried lily. At the same time, you can smell the odor. If there is no pungent sulfur smell, it is less likely to be smoked with sulfur.

This article was scientifically reviewed by Ruan Guangfeng, director of the business department of the China Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center.