☯ TCM Properties
Clears Damp-Heat and cools the Blood; Promotes urination; Disperses abscesses
Traditional Chinese Uses
Mu Jin Hua, the dried flower of Hibiscus syriacus (Flos Hibisci), is a cold, sweet-and-bland herb in the heat-clearing category, entering the Lung and Spleen channels. It clears Damp-Heat and cools the Blood, and is used chiefly for damp-heat patterns of the lower burner: dysentery and diarrhea, and thick, yellow, foul-smelling vaginal discharge (leukorrhea). Its Blood-cooling action also addresses bleeding hemorrhoids and blood in the stool.
Applied externally, the flower is used on furuncles, sores and swellings. It is typically decocted at 3-9 g, or dried and powdered. Related parts of the same shrub, notably the bark (Mu Jin Pi), share the damp-heat-clearing action. Being cool and draining, it suits excess-Heat patterns rather than deficiency-cold conditions of the digestive tract.
Botanical Description
Hibiscus syriacus, the rose of Sharon, is a deciduous shrub of the Malvaceae family native to East Asia (despite its specific epithet) and widely cultivated as an ornamental across temperate regions. The plant grows two to four meters tall with an upright vase-shaped habit, freely branching from the base, and bears greyish-brown bark that becomes longitudinally fissured with age. Leaves are alternate, broadly ovate to rhomboid, three-lobed with coarsely toothed margins, dark green above and paler beneath, and unfold relatively late in spring. The plant flowers profusely from mid-summer to early autumn, producing solitary trumpet-shaped flowers up to ten centimeters across in the upper leaf axils; colors range from pure white through pink, lavender, and violet to deep blue-purple, often with a contrasting darker basal blotch and a prominent staminal column.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 6-15g | Daily | — | — | — |
This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any herbal remedy, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medications.
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