Black truffle is a kind of wild edible fungus that grows underground. Also called truffles, myrtle, etc. Its appearance is uneven, its color is between dark brown and black, and it is small and convex, covered with gray or light black and white textures. Its smell is so special that it is hard to describe. Some people describe it as mushrooms, garlic, rotten leaves, wetlands, fermented corn, pickles, honey, gas, wet straw, cheese and so on.

Black truffles are very picky about the growing environment. As long as the pH of sunlight, water or soil changes slightly, they cannot grow. It is the only delicious food in the world that can't be planted in an orderly way. Truffles grow under one tree, but another tree that looks exactly the same can't. People still don't know why. Unlike mushrooms and other common fungi, the spores of truffles are not transmitted by wind, but by animals that eat truffles. Truffles mainly grow under pine, oak, hazel, beech and orange trees. This is because truffles can't survive independently because they can't carry out photosynthesis, and they must obtain nutrients through the * * * relationship with some tree roots.

The maturity of black truffles is usually from June 1 1 to March of the following year, and the best season is usually from February 1 to March of the following year. People who collect truffles are called truffle hunters. Every truffle hunter has a family treasure map, which records the location, time and size of truffles that his parents once found. The process of finding truffles is very interesting, and hunters in different countries use different methods. In France, sows were once regarded as the right-hand man to harvest black truffles. Sows have a very sensitive sense of smell, and can smell truffles buried 25 cm to 30 cm away.

Black truffles are rich in protein, 18 amino acids (including 8 essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized by human body), unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, zinc, manganese, iron, calcium, phosphorus, selenium and other essential trace elements, as well as sphingolipids, cerebrosides, ceramides, triterpenoids, androsterone, adenosine, truffle acid, sterols and truffle polysaccharides. Among them, androsterone has obvious effects of supporting yang and regulating endocrine. Sphingolipid compounds have obvious anti-Alzheimer's disease, anti-atherosclerosis and anti-tumor cytotoxicity activities. Polysaccharides, peptides and triterpenoids have the functions of enhancing immunity, anti-aging and anti-fatigue, and can be used for health care.

Black truffles taste strange. The smell of mushrooms, garlic, wet mud, honey, corn, bedbugs, rotten leaves, etc. Are used to describe the smell of truffles. Some people often say that they smell musk, semen and sheets that have not been washed for years, and even professional olfactory experts describe it as gasoline mixed with garlic and rotten eggs. Of course, some forest wetlands have the smell of fermented leaves, mixed with a hint of yeast and honey. What's that smell?

For two thousand years, black truffles have been found only in southern alps, Europe, which is the main reason why people in China are not familiar with black truffles. At the end of last century, Chinese scientists discovered the distribution of black truffles in the southeast of Himalayas, which caused a sensation all over the world. Since then, all black truffles made in China have been exported. In recent years, the research on the folk application of truffles in producing areas shows that, in fact, in the Tibetan, Yi and other ethnic minority areas in southwest China, black truffles, which have been called "black niang fruit" for hundreds of years, have long been used by local villagers to enhance their physical strength, improve their sexual ability and regulate women's menstrual blood, and it is said that the effect is excellent.