Da Feng Zi

Da Feng Zi is the ripe seed of Hydnocarpus anthelminthica Pierre ex Laness. (Achariaceae, formerly Flacourtiaceae), the chaulmoogra tree, a medium-sized evergreen tree 6 to 20 m tall native to Indochina, Thailand, Myanmar, and southern China. Leaves are alternate, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, leathery, and entire; dioecious axillary clusters of small pink-white flowers give rise to globose woody capsules 6 to 8 cm across containing 30 to 50 angular brown seeds. WARNING: The seed and its fixed oil, chaulmoogra oil, are toxic gastrointestinal and dermal irritants and were largely abandoned with the advent of dapsone and multidrug therapy. The oil was historically the principal worldwide treatment for leprosy from the late nineteenth century into the mid twentieth century, and the seed is also documented in classical Chinese sources. In traditional Chinese medicine the seed is acrid, hot, and toxic, entering the Liver, Spleen, and Kidney channels; it kills parasites, dries damp, and resolves toxicity, used externally for leprosy, syphilitic sores, scabies, ringworm, and stubborn skin disease.