China's Tonic Ingredients and Wellness Categories: H1 2024

Executive Summary

China's functional wellness categories within the food-medicine homology space are defying the overall market's pricing headwinds, with the liver-protection segment reaching CN¥ 2.999 billion (+34.1% YoY) in MAT2024 and the "three highs" prevention market posting +26.6% YoY growth to CN¥ 181.97 million. The sleep-aid market reached CN¥ 464 million (+10.1% YoY), while wellness pastes — the format innovation success story — grew +27.3% YoY to CN¥ 834.9 million. This deep-dive examines the high-growth functional segments, tonic ingredient trends, and product format dynamics shaping the forward outlook for China's food-medicine supplements category in H1 2024.

Wellness Teas and Pastes: Format Innovation Drives Divergence

The general wellness food-medicine homology market — encompassing wellness teas (养生茶), wellness pastes (养生膏), and wellness pills (养生丸) — demonstrates how radically format preference can restructure a traditional category in three years. In aggregate, the combined market declined in both MAT2023 (-14.6% YoY) and MAT2024 (-9.1% YoY), primarily due to the collapse of wellness pills from CN¥ 1,977.6 million in MAT2022 to CN¥ 373.1 million in MAT2024 — an 81.1% contraction driven by the migration of this sub-category toward snack formats that divert sales out of traditional tonic channels.

Wellness pastes stand out as the category's growth engine, posting +27.3% YoY in MAT2024 to reach CN¥ 834.9 million — up from CN¥ 471.1 million in MAT2022. This performance reflects the format's alignment with the ready-to-eat trend: pastes require no preparation, position naturally as daily wellness rituals, and lend themselves to social media content that younger consumers share as lifestyle signals. The paste format's most dynamic growth drivers are:

• Donkey-hide gelatin paste (阿胶膏): +73.0% YoY, driven by premiumization-through-blending strategies
• Sour jujube seed paste: +54.3% YoY, benefiting from strong positioning in the sleep-aid segment
• Bazhen paste: +49.1% YoY, leveraging its classical TCM compound formulation credentials
• Yu Ling paste: +14.7% YoY, expanding through wellness lifestyle content marketing

Wellness teas remain the largest sub-category at CN¥ 2,954.1 million in MAT2024 despite a modest decline from the MAT2023 peak. Within this broadly flat market, corn silk tea posted +32.0% YoY growth — a standout driven by its association with kidney health and blood sugar regulation that precisely targets the early-stage management concerns driving the "three highs" segment. Chrysanthemum and cassia seed remains the largest tea format at 16% revenue share, posting near-flat +1.0% YoY growth that signals category maturity requiring format or benefit extension to reignite momentum.

Blood-Replenishing Market: Decline Masks High-Growth Pockets

The blood-replenishing and qi-nourishing market represents one of the largest functional segments within the food-medicine homology universe, yet it has declined for three consecutive years — reaching CN¥ 17.521 billion in MAT2024, down from CN¥ 19.172 billion in MAT2022 (-6.9% YoY in MAT2024). This sustained contraction reflects both the pricing pressure documented at the overall category level and specific headwinds facing the segment's dominant ingredients, particularly ginseng (人参), which collapsed -59.8% YoY and honey, which fell -19.3%.

However, the aggregate decline conceals meaningful growth pockets. Donkey-hide gelatin (阿胶) posted +20.2% YoY growth — the most significant positive performer in the segment — driven by multi-platform brand building that educates consumers on its blood-nourishing and skin health benefits. Wolfberry/goji (枸杞) grew +6.8%, astragalus (黄芪) +6.0%, and Korean ginseng (高丽参) +3.6%. These performers share a common characteristic: they are supported by active content marketing and positioned with specific modern wellness benefit claims rather than relying on traditional tonic heritage alone.

The structural implication: commodity ingredient positioning is increasingly unviable. Revenue-weighted leadership is migrating toward ingredients with differentiated brand narratives, favoring brands that invest in consumer education over those relying on heritage recognition alone.

Liver-Protection: The Market's Standout Growth Story

The liver-protection market is China's food-medicine homology category's most compelling growth story, achieving CN¥ 2.999 billion in MAT2024 revenue — representing a 140% expansion from CN¥ 1.249 billion in MAT2022, and maintaining +34.1% YoY growth following an even higher +78.9% YoY gain in MAT2023. The growth is driven by a convergence of public health demand drivers: China accounts for 50% of global new liver cancer cases annually^[1], rising alcohol consumption among urban professionals is increasing liver disease awareness, and the evidence base for food-medicine homology ingredients in hepatoprotection is expanding.

Milk thistle (水飞蓟/乳蓟) dominates the liver-protection market at 61.3% share — CN¥ 1,837.96 million in MAT2024 revenue, growing +45.3% YoY. Its dominance reflects a strong Western supplement science evidence base (silymarin's hepatoprotective properties are well-documented) combined with natural alignment with the food-medicine homology regulatory framework.

The most significant catalytic development came in November 2023, when the National Health Commission added reishi mushroom (灵芝) to the food-medicine homology directory. The MAT2024 data already shows reishi mushroom growing +653.4% YoY in the liver-protection segment — a figure that captures only the beginning of this commercial unlocking. Schisandra (五味子) also posted +105.9% YoY and ginger +95.1%, reflecting growing consumer awareness supported by Xiaohongshu (小红书) content marketing.

Three Highs Prevention: Regulatory Validation Accelerates Demand

The "three highs" food-medicine homology market — targeting consumers managing or seeking to prevent high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high blood lipids — is one of the most significant structural growth opportunities in the broader category. MAT2024 revenue reached CN¥ 181.965 million, up +26.6% YoY, recovering sharply from a brief -4.2% dip in MAT2023 and demonstrating genuine demand acceleration rather than base-effect recovery.

The National Health Commission's 2023 "Adult 'Three Highs' Dietary Therapy Guidelines" played a catalytic role, providing official validation of specific food-medicine homology ingredients for managing hypertensive conditions. The commercial impact is direct: notoginseng (三七) grew +584.7% YoY, American ginseng (西洋参) +248.0%, gastrodia (天麻) +155.8%, and reishi mushroom (灵芝) +125.9% — all driven by the combination of regulatory endorsement and rising consumer demand for preventive nutrition^[2]. The segment's CN¥ 181.97 million absolute revenue versus the CN¥ 36.61 billion overall category signals that penetration remains low and growth headroom is substantial.

Sleep-Aid Market and Gift Sets: Sustained Demand with Structural Tailwinds

The sleep-aid market reached CN¥ 464 million (+10.1% YoY) in MAT2024, moderating from an extraordinary +83.1% YoY surge in MAT2023. This deceleration represents natural normalization from an exceptional base rather than structural weakness — the underlying demand driver is unchanged: more than 300 million people in China face sleep disorders, with an incidence rate of 38.2% significantly above the 27% global average. Post-90s consumers are particularly affected, with 36.3% classified as poor sleepers.

Sour jujube seed (酸枣仁) leads the sleep-aid category by absolute revenue at CN¥ 359.1 million (+2.7% YoY as the core ingredient matures), while longan flesh (桂圆/龙眼肉) posted approximately +795% YoY growth by positioning itself as a compound formulation ingredient for sleep support. Pearl powder's +140.6% growth demonstrates the premium of dual-benefit positioning combining sleep quality and skin health.

Gift set products represent the market's most structurally insulated sub-segment. Gift set revenue grew +6.0% YoY and volume rose +27.7% YoY — both outperforming the overall market's -6.5% revenue contraction. The cultural embeddedness of premium tonic gifting for Chinese New Year, family visits, and postpartum occasions creates demand insensitive to broad pricing trends. January 2024 generated CN¥ 788.6 million in gift set revenue — the highest single month in three years — with leading brands Yanzhiwo (燕之屋) at CN¥ 1,199 per gift box and Dong-E E-Jiao (东阿阿胶) at CN¥ 546 anchoring the premium tier.

Key Takeaways

• Liver-protection reached CN¥ 2.999 billion (+34.1% YoY), powered by milk thistle (61.3% share) and the post-regulatory expansion of reishi mushroom (+653.4% YoY)
• The "three highs" prevention segment grew +26.6% YoY to CN¥ 181.97 million, with notoginseng (+584.7%) and American ginseng (+248.0%) posting extraordinary growth following NHC guideline endorsement
• Wellness pastes grew +27.3% YoY to CN¥ 834.9 million — the format innovation success story within general wellness, driven by ready-to-eat convenience positioning
• Sleep-aid market reached CN¥ 464 million (+10.1% YoY) with longan flesh posting +795% YoY growth as compound formulation innovation creates new revenue within a maturing base
• Gift sets outperformed the overall market (+6.0% revenue YoY, +27.7% volume YoY) with January 2024 reaching CN¥ 788.6 million — the strongest month in three years

About the Data

This analysis draws on Moojing Market Intelligence (魔镜洞察) data covering MAT2024 (May 2023–April 2024). Moojing tracks 400,000+ brands across 30+ e-commerce platforms, representing 58-65% of China's online retail GMV. Social media listening data covers Douyin (抖音), Xiaohongshu (小红书), Weibo (微博), and related content platforms. Ingredient data counts all ingredients contained in a product; multi-ingredient products contribute to each constituent ingredient's metrics. For full methodology, see the complete H1 2024 Food-Medicine Supplements whitepaper.

For inquiries: [email protected] | moojing-global.com

^[1] National Cancer Center of China, "2022 China Liver Cancer Report"; cited in China Health Industry Development Report 2024.

^[2] National Health Commission of China, "Adult 'Three Highs' Dietary Therapy Guidelines," 2023.