As a saying goes, “Bitter diet in summer is better than tonics”. It’s quite common for Pu’er locals to eat a number of bitterly tasting wild vegetables, including Dregea volubilis flowers, to relieve summer heat and people’s inner heat as well.

Dregea volubilis flowers taste bitter and have a cooling effect for the body. Their medicinal effects also include the relief of inner heat, toxics, cough, sputum, swelling, pain, “inner wind”, as well as facilitate water metabolism. They can be cooked by just stir fry or be mixed into beaten eggs to make pancakes.