It can sell for up to 3 times its weight in gold and can be as much as about $63,000 per pound.Caterpillar fungus has been used in traditional herbal medicine for many centuries but has gained popularity in recent decades. Subsequently, driving up the price which can be as much as about $63,000 per pound.
Caterpillar fungus grows in the remote Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan Mountains but that's not the only place you can find it. Here we are in New York City's Chinatown. And nestled among countless drawers of dried mugwort leaves and hibiscus flowers, It shows up for only a few weeks each year in remote regions of Nepal, Tibet, India and Bhutan. And even then, the fungus can be tricky for collectors to find, hidden amidst a sea of grass. For centuries, it's been a staple of traditional Tibetan and Chinese medicine.For instance, a family might add half of this to a chicken soup. And it's even rumored that it can be used as a sort of Himalayan viagra though there's little evidence to back it up.
In the Tibet Autonomous Region, for example, collectors reportedly hauled out more than three times as much caterpillar fungus in the early 2000s, than they did in the 1980s. And now, many families depend on the cash it brings in.
Farm the fungus maybe?