''Leonurus japonicus'', commonly called oriental motherwort or Chinese motherwort, is a herbaceous

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

native to Asia, including

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and China to

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

Description

Plants are annual or biennial, growing from taproots. The stems are upright growing to a height of 30 to 120 cm. The flowers are sessile and produced in verticillasters. The calyx is tubular-campanulate shaped and 6–8 mm long with broad triangle shaped teeth. The corolla is white or reddish to purplish red in color. Plants bloom from June to September. It has escaped cultivation and become naturalized in other parts of the world including South and North America, Europe and Africa.

Uses

It is one of the

50 fundamental herbs Chinese herbology () is the theory of traditional Chinese herbal therapy, which accounts for the majority of treatments in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). A ''Nature'' editorial described TCM as "fraught with pseudoscience", and said that t ...

used in

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

, where it is called ''yìmǔcǎo'' (), literally "beneficial herb for mothers". It is used in cases of menstrual and delivery disorders caused by blood stasis, like dysmenorrhea, and amenorrhea. ''Leonurus japonicus'', contains several biologically active compounds, including guanosine (CAS: 118-00-3), rutin (CAS: 153-18-4), syringic acid (CAS: 530-57-4) and stigmasterol (CAS: 83-48-7). Scientists use the purified compound as a standard in drug screening.

Gallery

image:Leonurus japonicus 01.JPG, image:Leonurus japonicus 03.JPG, image:Leonurus japonicus Blanco2.259.png,

References

External links

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Plants for a Future
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1071905 Lamiaceae Flora of China Flora of Eastern Asia Flora of Indo-China Garden plants of Asia Plants used in traditional Chinese medicine Plants described in 1778 Taxa named by Martinus Houttuyn