Traditionally used for
- Colds & fever
- Digestion
- Bowel health
- Mood & calm
- Skin
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Summerheat, harmonizes the Stomach, invigorates the Blood, stops bleeding, and removes toxicity
Traditional Chinese Uses
Qiang Wei Hua is the dried flower of Rosa multiflora (Rosaceae), a bitter, astringent, cool herb classed with the Heat-clearing medicinals. Its aromatic, light-clearing nature is used to clear Summerheat and harmonize the Stomach in summer damp-heat with fever, thirst, poor appetite, nausea, and irritability. It also drains Damp-Heat, appearing in traditional treatment of damp-heat dysentery and diarrhea, and, entering the Stomach and Large Intestine channels, in mouth sores and thirst. Its cooling, blood-moving and toxin-resolving actions extend to sores, boils, and minor bleeding. Typically taken as a light infusion or brief decoction of a few grams, often paired with other gentle summerheat herbs. As a mild cooling flower it is generally well tolerated but is unsuited to Cold-Deficiency of the digestion.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
Full-screen graph →Click a node for details · double-click to expand it · Ctrl/⌘ + scroll or two fingers to zoom and pan.
Botanical Description
Qiang Wei Hua is the dried flower of Rosa multiflora Thunb. (Rosaceae), the multiflora or rambler rose, a vigorous arching deciduous shrub 2 to 5 m tall native to China, Korea, and Japan and widely naturalized elsewhere. Stems bear paired recurved prickles and pinnately compound leaves with five to nine serrate leaflets and fringed stipules. Numerous small fragrant white to pink flowers about 1.5 to 2 cm across appear in pyramidal panicles in late spring, followed by small red hips. The flowers are gathered just before opening and shade-dried. In traditional Chinese medicine the flower is bitter, astringent, and cool, entering the Stomach and Liver channels; it clears summerheat, harmonizes the stomach, stops bleeding, and is used for summerheat thirst, hematemesis, epistaxis, malaria, and chronic diarrhea.
Active Constituents
Multiflorin A
Acylated kaempferol glycosideConcentration: reported from the fruit (Rosae fructus), not the flower, and present only in the Type I chemotype of the species; Type II plants lack it entirely
The purgative principle for which this species is named, and the reason the fruit rather than the flower is the part used for constipation in Kampo practice. It works by inhibiting sodium-glucose cotransporter 1 in the small intestine and reducing occludin and claudin-1 expression, so unabsorbed glucose creates a hyperosmotic lumen, while raised aquaporin 3 promotes water secretion; the residual glucose is then fermented in the large bowel. Its glucose-lowering and purgative actions occur together, and the acetyl group is the active moiety. Both intestinal permeability and glucose absorption recovered after dosing stopped.
Multinoside A and multinoside A acetate
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: index compounds of the Type I chemotype fruit, alongside quercitrin and multiflorin B
Marker compounds rather than established actives. Their presence identifies material of the chemotype that also carries multiflorin A, and so predicts that a fruit preparation will behave as a laxative.
Hyperoside, isoquercitrin, quercetin 3-O-glucuronide and 3'-methoxy-isoquercitrin
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: the index compounds of the Type II chemotype, which contains no multiflorin A
These are the flavonols of the chemotype that fails as a purgative. Their dominance is the chemical explanation for reports that the efficacy of commercial Rosae fructus had declined: material was being collected from Type II populations, in which multiflorin A could not be detected at all.
Ellagic acid
Ellagitannin-derived polyphenolIdentified as the principal active of the fruit extract in an animal model of corticosterone-induced depression, where it showed the strongest docking affinity for monoamine oxidase A and B and raised monoamine neurotransmitter levels. Ellagic acid and related ellagitannins are the dominant phenolics across the Rosoideae generally, so this is a genus-level rather than a species-specific constituent.
Quercetin
Flavonol aglyconePresent as the aglycone and as the many glycosides that make up most of the flavonoid content of this species. It accounts for a large part of the antioxidant capacity measured in extracts but is too widely distributed among plants to be characteristic of this drug.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Laxatives (e.g. senna, bisacodyl, macrogol, lactulose)
Multiflorin A produced watery diarrhoea in over half of dosed mice at 20 mg/kg by an osmotic and permeability mechanism distinct from the stimulant action of anthraquinones, so the two would be expected to add rather than overlap. The important qualification is botanical: this evidence concerns the fruit of Type I plants, and there is no published measurement of multiflorin A in the flower, which is the drug here. Whether Qiang Wei Hua carries a meaningful purgative load is simply unknown.
Clinical note: If a patient on a laxative develops unexpected watery stools after starting a Rosa multiflora preparation, suspect the herb and check which plant part the product actually contains before assuming the flower is inert.
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors and serotonergic antidepressants (e.g. selegiline, moclobemide, SSRIs)
Fruit extract of this species lowered monoamine oxidase A and B protein and mRNA in mice and raised monoamine levels, with ellagic acid the compound responsible and selegiline as the positive comparator. This is a gene- and protein-expression effect in rodents at 100 to 300 mg/kg, not demonstrated enzyme inhibition in humans, and again it concerns the fruit and not the flower. No case of a clinical interaction has been reported.
Clinical note: No action needed for ordinary culinary or tea-strength use. Take note if a patient on an MAO inhibitor is using a concentrated Rosa multiflora fruit extract, and ask about headache or agitation.
Insulin and oral hypoglycaemic agents
Multiflorin A lowered peak postprandial glucose in mice, synchronously with its purgative action, by inhibiting intestinal sodium-glucose cotransporter 1 rather than by any systemic effect on insulin. In principle that is additive with drugs targeting postprandial glucose, but the dose that lowered glucose was the dose that caused diarrhoea, and the compound has not been quantified in the flower.
Clinical note: Not a practical concern at usual doses of the flower. If a diabetic patient uses a fruit preparation for constipation, expect the glycaemic effect to track the laxative effect and monitor accordingly.
Rosa multiflora fruit (Ying Shi) and root (Qiang Wei Gen) supplied in place of the flower
Nearly all published pharmacology of this species concerns the fruit; the flower is barely studied. Fruit, root and flower are separate drugs in the Chinese tradition with different actions, and the fruit is used specifically as a laxative in Japanese Kampo under the name Eijitsu. Because the modern literature is almost entirely about Rosae fructus, both practitioners and suppliers slide easily between the parts, and a patient given fruit in place of flower may receive an unintended purgative.
Clinical note: Confirm that the material is flower (Flos Rosae Multiflorae) and not fruit or root, and read the research on this species as evidence about the fruit unless the paper says otherwise.
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 4 studiesRecorded studies by study design, strongest design at the top. This is a study-design tier only, not a GRADE rating: it does not weigh risk of bias, consistency or precision.
Systematic review / meta-analysis
0
Randomized controlled trial
0
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
0
In vitro / animal
4
2 verified · 2 unverified
Show 4 studies
- Phytochemical characterization of Rosa multiflora Thunb. (Rosaceae) in Japan and South Korea, with a focus on the bioactive flavonol glycoside ‘multiflorin A’
- A novel purgative mechanism of multiflorin A involves changing intestinal glucose absorption and permeability
- Rosa multiflora fructus and its active compound ellagic acid improve depressive-like behaviors in mice via monoamine oxidase inhibition
- Oral treatment with Rosa multiflora fructus extract modulates mast cells in canine atopic dermatitis
Other / unclassified
0
Verified: design read from PubMed for a DOI that resolves to the cited paper Unverified: taken from the study's recorded description
Clinical Studies
Phytochemical characterization of Rosa multiflora Thunb. (Rosaceae) in Japan and South Korea, with a focus on the bioactive flavonol glycoside ‘multiflorin A’
Prompted by reports that the laxative efficacy of Rosae fructus was declining and that multiflorin A could not be detected in tested samples, the authors surveyed Rosa section Synstylae across Japan and South Korea. Two chemotypes exist: Type I contains multiflorin A along with quercitrin, multinoside A, multiflorin B and multinoside A acetate; Type II lacks multiflorin A and is characterised instead by hyperoside, isoquercitrin, quercetin 3-O-glucuronide and 3'-methoxy-isoquercitrin. Japanese material outside Tsushima Island was uniformly Type I, while Korean and Tsushima material included both. The conclusion is that only Type I fruit should be used clinically as a purgative, and that geographic origin determines chemotype.
A novel purgative mechanism of multiflorin A involves changing intestinal glucose absorption and permeability
The first systematic experimental study of the purgative action of multiflorin A, the flavonol glycoside first characterised from Rosa multiflora. At 20 mg/kg it caused watery diarrhoea in over half of the mice. It was metabolised chiefly in the small intestine, where it reduced sodium-glucose cotransporter 1, occludin and claudin-1 expression, inhibiting glucose absorption and creating a hyperosmotic lumen, while raising aquaporin 3 to promote water secretion; unabsorbed glucose then reshaped the large-bowel microbiota, and the resulting gas and organic acids promoted defecation. Lowering of the postprandial glucose peak tracked the purgative effect, and the acetyl group was the active moiety. Intestinal permeability and glucose absorption recovered afterwards, with Bifidobacterium increased. Note the source material: this study administered the compound and the traditional laxative Pruni semen, not Rosa multiflora flower.
Rosa multiflora fructus and its active compound ellagic acid improve depressive-like behaviors in mice via monoamine oxidase inhibition
Mice given corticosterone for eight weeks were treated with Rosa multiflora fruit extract at 100 or 300 mg/kg, with selegiline as positive control. The extract reduced immobility in tail suspension and forced swim tests, reduced hippocampal astrocyte hypertrophy, and lowered monoamine oxidase A and B protein and mRNA. UPLC-MS/MS identified ellagic acid, hyperoside, isoquercitrin, quercetin and quercetin-3-glucuronide, and ellagic acid, which docked most strongly to both enzymes, reproduced the behavioural effect and raised monoamine levels on its own. Rodent behavioural data on the fruit; there is no clinical trial and no equivalent work on the flower.
Oral treatment with Rosa multiflora fructus extract modulates mast cells in canine atopic dermatitis
Beagles with ovalbumin-induced atopic dermatitis were given Rosa multiflora fruit extract orally for two weeks. Clinical severity on the canine atopic dermatitis extent and severity index improved, mast cell numbers and activation fell, immunoglobulin E production dropped, and T-helper 2 cytokine levels shifted, with corresponding histopathological changes. A veterinary model rather than a human trial, and again the fruit rather than the flower, but it is one of the few in vivo studies of this species in a spontaneous-disease-like setting.
Historical Texts
Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing
Han dynasty (compiled by the 2nd century CE)Yi Lin Zuan Yao Tan Yuan
Qing dynastyBen Cao Gang Mu
Ming dynasty (1596)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.
📝 Notes
Public notes from the community and your own private notes on Qiang Wei Hua.
No notes yet.