Q 01/05

Which Chinese therapy left the round purple bruises seen on swimmer Michael Phelps's back at the 2016 Olympics?

A) Moxibustion

B) Acupressure

C) Cupping

D) Bloodletting

Answer · why

C) Cupping

Cupping uses heated cups to create suction on the skin, an effect put down to the air inside cooling. Shaquille O'Neal and tennis player Ben Shelton h...

Q 02/05

Which Chinese invention, named huoyao or 'fire medicine', was first mixed by alchemists seeking an elixir of life?

A) Gunpowder

B) Matches

C) Porcelain

D) Paper money

Answer · why

A) Gunpowder

Gunpowder was originally developed by Taoists for medicinal purposes and was not used in warfare until around AD 904. Its sulfur and saltpeter were al...

Q 03/05

Chinese healers blew powdered scabs up patients' noses centuries before Edward Jenner to protect against which disease?

A) Measles

B) Cholera

C) Diphtheria

D) Smallpox

Answer · why

D) Smallpox

Smallpox scabs from mild cases were powdered and puffed up the nostril in the hope of a mild but protective infection. China has the oldest documented...

Q 04/05

Yartsa gunbu, a fungus prized in traditional Chinese medicine, sprouts from the mummified body of which creature?

A) A stag beetle

B) A caterpillar

C) A scorpion

D) A giant centipede

Answer · why

B) A caterpillar

A caterpillar of the ghost moth is infected on the Tibetan Plateau; the fungus kills and mummifies it, then sends up a stalk from the corpse. A pound ...

Q 05/05

Tu Youyou won a 2015 Nobel Prize after a 1,600-year-old Chinese herbal recipe led her to a drug for which disease?

A) Malaria

B) Tuberculosis

C) Leprosy

D) Hepatitis

Answer · why

A) Malaria

Malaria drug artemisinin comes from sweet wormwood. Tu isolated it after reading a handbook written in 340 by Ge Hong, which said to steep the herb in...