Ye Mu Dan

Ye Mu Dan, the wild peony, is the aerial parts and root of Melastoma candidum D.Don (syn. M. malabathricum auct., Melastomataceae), an evergreen shrub 0.5 to 1.5 m tall common on acidic hillsides and forest margins across southern China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, with no botanical relation to true peony (Paeonia) despite the shared common name. Stems are densely covered in appressed scales; the opposite ovate-lanceolate leaves bear three to five prominent parallel veins characteristic of the family and are rough-hairy above. Showy rose-purple five-petaled flowers about 5 cm across cluster at branch tips and produce fleshy purple-black urceolate berries with red pulp. In traditional Chinese folk medicine the herb is sweet, slightly astringent, and neutral, entering the Lung, Liver, and Spleen channels; it dispels wind-damp, harmonizes the blood, stops bleeding, and resolves toxicity, used for dysentery, hematochezia, hematuria, irregular menstruation, traumatic injury, and snakebite.