Hakka folk customs:
For a hundred years, many Hakkas have regarded tea oil as a noble gift. Be sure to send tea oil to relatives and friends on holidays, weddings and special occasions.
Hakka people have always recognized the nutritional and health care value of tea oil for pregnant women and children. Whenever relatives and friends "confinement", they will give tea oil and other things as gifts, which is called "playing ginger wine".
Hakka people use tea oil not only for food, but also for hairdressing, brightening hair and moistening skin. According to legend, Yu Xin, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, relegated to the south and moved to Meiling. He met a village girl who washed her hair and feet in a mountain stream, singing while washing. After washing, the village girl wiped her hair with tea oil, and the mountain wind blew, and the long black and shiny hair floated lightly with the wind. Yu Xin felt as if she had met a fairy, and the anxiety of moving south was alleviated.
Hakka people also use tea oil as a long-term "medicine" to treat common diseases such as oral ulcer, sore throat, toothache, carbuncle and constipation. Therefore, there is a Hakka folk proverb: "There is a bowl of tea oil at home, so you don't have to worry about minor illnesses and pains."
Classical records:
The Classic of Mountains and Seas (3rd century BC) records: "Wood, oil and grain in the southern countryside". The "official wood" mentioned here, namely Camellia oleifera, can prove that ancestors in southern China used Camellia oleifera fruit to extract oil and eat it 2,300 years ago.
Tea oil has been produced in the mountainous areas of southern Jiangxi since ancient times. The secretary of Fu County Records said: "There are many kinds of tea seeds in the mountains. Its trees are strong, its leaves are thick, its green is thick, and it won't wither in winter. It will bloom in June 1 1, with white petals and yellow hearts, and the flowers are in bud. At the age of one, it will pick up seeds, cut kernels and extract oil. Color and taste are sweet, fragrant and clean, specially used for eating, and cream is also good. Wu bought it and added roses, jasmine and osmanthus, which is glycerol. " "Merchants will not stop selling at the end of the year."
Compendium of Materia Medica: "Tea oil can moisten intestines, clear stomach, detoxify and sterilize"; "Nongxiju Diet Spectrum": "Tea oil can moisten dryness, clear heat, calm wind and benefit brain ... Tea oil is not a taboo for all diseases"; The Book of Agricultural Administration: "Tea oil can cure hemorrhoids and reduce damp heat ..."
(Excerpted from: China Camellia Oil Network chayou888.com)