Asarum sibiricum

Chinese Name: Asarum

[category]: whole grass

Asarum, Chinese wild ginger

[alias]: Asarum sibiricum, Yandai Guohua and xishen.

[source]: Asarum sibiricum, a plant of Aristolochiaceae rumheterotropoldesFr.Schmidtvar.mandshuricum (Maxim.) Kitag.

[harvesting]: in summer, the fruit is harvested at the ripe stage or in early autumn to remove sediment and dry in the shade.

[nature and taste]: warm in nature and pungent in taste.

[plant morphology]: perennial herb, 10-30cm high. Rhizome transverse, diameter about 3 mm, apical branches, internodes 2-3 mm long, there are many slender roots on the node, the root is about 1 mm thick, twirling spicy. Leaves usually 2, heart-shaped or kidney shaped, heart-shaped, 4-9cm long, 5-13cm wide, with short hairs on veins and dense hairs below; petiole about 15cm long. Flowers solitary in leaf axils; perianth tube pot shaped, purple, apically 3-lobed, lobes turned outward; stamens 12, filaments nearly as long as anthers; ovary half inferior, style 6. Capsule fleshy, hemispherical. The flowering period is May and the fruiting period is June.

[growing place] under the hillside forest and in the shady and humid part of the shrub. The main products are Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang.

[chemical composition] it contains volatile oil, mainly including methyleugenol, asaricin, elemicin, safrole, DL demethylclaurine and pellitorine.

Indications: dispelling wind and dispersing cold, Tongqiao Zhitong, Wenfei Huayin. It is used for cold, headache, toothache, stuffy nose, rheumatic arthralgia, phlegm and cough.