Is peony red peony?

Peony is both common and precious, and has high nutritional value. It is dug in spring and autumn, and the mud and sand are removed. It also needs to be dried and air-dried. It requires complicated production. It has the effects of clearing heat and cooling blood, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, as well as regulating the spleen and stomach, and treating abdominal pain. There are many effects of peony, and peony has different names. Chinese medicine has many improvements to the body.

Red Peony Root, a traditional Chinese medicine name. It is the dried root of Paeonia lactiflora or Paeonia lactiflora of the Ranunculaceae family. Dig it up in spring and autumn, remove the rhizomes, fibrous roots and mud and sand, and dry it in the sun. Bitter, slightly cold. It enters the liver meridian. It has the effects of clearing away heat, cooling blood, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis. Red peony root is a famous wild authentic Chinese medicinal material with a long history of application, large usage, wide applications and relatively rigid demand. A considerable amount is exported every year.

Basic Information

Overview

Name of a traditional Chinese medicine, function: It is sour, astringent and soft in nature, and has the effects of nourishing yin, removing blood stasis, relieving pain, cooling blood and reducing swelling. Indications: Treats amenorrhea due to blood stasis, hernia, abdominal pain, flank pain, epistaxis, bloody diarrhea, intestinal bleeding, red eyes, carbuncle, and injuries from falls.

Introduction

Red peony root is a famous wild authentic Chinese medicinal material with a long history of application, large usage, wide applications and relatively rigid demand. A considerable amount is exported every year. Red peony root is widely known by drug dealers. With the acceleration of the rising market in the past two years and the further shortage of market supply, attention is also increasing. At present, the annual market demand for red peony root is about 2,500 tons or more.

The harvesting period of red peony root is mostly concentrated in July and August. The current market supply relies entirely on wild products. Red peony root can be cultivated artificially, and can be harvested after 5-7 years of seed propagation and 4-6 years of bud propagation.

However, due to the long growing period and low price, large-scale cultivation that can provide commercial products has not yet been found. Red peony root has a long growth cycle and is difficult to recover once it is harvested. The resource quantity in the current production area has dropped sharply and the market supply can no longer be guaranteed. Coupled with the decline in production capacity and the increase in labor costs, the supply will continue to decline in the foreseeable future. In recent years, local governments have gradually increased their efforts to protect environmental resources, which has also had a certain inhibitory effect on the production of red peony root.

Plant properties

Peony

A perennial herb, red peony root is 40-70cm tall and glabrous. The roots are enlarged, fusiform or cylindrical, and dark brown. The stem is erect, branched at the top, and has several sheath-like membranous scales at the base. Leaves are alternate; petioles are up to 9 cm long, and those at the top of the stem are shorter; leaves at the lower part of the stem are twice-triplet compound leaves, and leaves at the upper part are triplet compound leaves; leaflets are narrowly ovate, elliptical or lanceolate, 7.5-12 cm long, 2-4 cm wide, gradually pointed at the apex, cuneate or oblique at the base, with white cartilaginous serrations on the margins, glabrous on both sides, sparsely pubescent along the veins on the underside, and nearly leathery.

Flowers are bisexual, several in number at the top of the stem and in the axils of leaves, 7-12 cm in diameter; bracts are 4-5, lanceolate, of varying sizes; sepals are 4, broadly ovate or nearly circular, 1-1.5 cm long, 1-1.7 cm wide, green, persistent; petals are 9-13, obovate, 3.5-6 cm long, 1.5-4.5 cm wide, white, sometimes with dark purple patches or pink at the base, and the petals of cultivated varieties are of various colors and double; stamens are numerous, filaments are 7-12 mm long, and anthers are yellow; disk is shallowly cup-shaped, wrapping the base of the carpel, with obtuse lobes at the tip; carpels are 2-5, free, and glabrous. The follicles are ovate or ovoid, 2.5-3cm long, 1.2-1.5cm in diameter, with rafters at the tip. The flowering period is May-June, and the fruiting period is June-August.

Sichuan red peony root

Perennial herb, 30-120cm tall. Root cylindrical, simple or branched, 1.5-2m in diameter. The stem is erect, with thick and blunt edges, and is hairless. Leaves are alternate; petioles are 3-9m long; leaves at the lower part of the stem are twice-ternate, with a broad ovate outline and 7.5-20cm long; leaflets are pinnately divided, with narrow lanceolate or lanceolate lobes, 4-16mm wide, gradually pointed at the apex, entire, dark green above, sparsely pubescent along the veins, light green below, glabrous, with obvious veins.

Flowers are bisexual, 2-4 in number, growing at the top of the stem and in the axils of leaves, usually only one flower opens, with a diameter of 4.2-10 cm; bracts are 2-3, lanceolate, 3-7 cm long, divided or undivided; sepals are 4, broadly ovate, 1.7 m long, 1-1.4 cm wide, green, persistent; petals are 6-9, obovate, 2.3-4 cm long, 1.5-3 m wide, purple-red or pink; stamens are numerous, filaments are 5-10 mm long, anthers are yellow; disk is fleshy, only covering the base of carpels; carpels are 2-5, free, densely covered with yellow pubescence, stigma is persistent. The follicles are 1-2m long, densely covered with yellow hairs, and the ripe fruit cracks and often curls back. The flowering period is May-June, and the fruiting period is July-August.