Xiang Ru

Elsholtzia ciliata (Thunb.) Hyl. (Lamiaceae), known as Vietnamese balm or crested late-summer mint, is a strongly aromatic annual herb native to East Asia and widely naturalized across temperate Eurasia. It grows 30 to 70 cm tall with erect, slender, four-angled, often purplish stems that are sparsely hairy and freely branching. The leaves are opposite, ovate to broadly lanceolate, 3 to 9 cm long, with serrate margins, an acute tip, a wedge-shaped to rounded base and slender petioles; both surfaces bear scattered glandular dots that release a strong mint-like, somewhat lemony scent when rubbed. The inflorescence is a one-sided terminal spike 2 to 7 cm long, dense and comb-like, with conspicuous, broadly ovate, ciliate, often purple-tinged bracts overlapping like the teeth of a comb. The small, two-lipped, pale purple-pink flowers protrude from between the bracts. The aerial parts, harvested in summer when in flower and shade-dried, constitute Xiang Ru in Chinese medicine.