WHITE PEONY, RED PEONY, AND MOUTAN:
Three Chinese Herbs Derived from Paeonia
The Ranunculacea family yields numerous important Chinese herbs (1), including aconite, anemone, cimic
WHITE PEONY, RED PEONY, AND MOUTAN:
Three Chinese Herbs Derived from Paeonia
The Ranunculacea family yields numerous important Chinese herbs (1), including aconite, anemone, cimicifuga, clematis, coptis, and the peonies (Paeonia). The underground parts-roots or rhizomes-of this group of plants are utilized in making medicines. The genus Paeonia is named for the most ancient Greek god of healing, Paeon, who was known as "the physician of the gods." He was said to have used this plant for medicine. In China, peony is mentioned in the most ancient texts, having been used as a flavoring for food. It has been relayed that Confucius said: "I eat nothing without its sauce. I enjoy it very much, because of its flavoring."
There are two species of Paeonia that are particularly important to Chinese medical practice, Paeonia lactiflora (see Figure 1), which is the primary source of both white peony (baishaoyao or simply baishao) and red peony (chishaoyao or simply chishao), and Paeonia suffruticosa (see Figure 2), the source of moutan (mudanpi).
Modern Chinese herb authorities have grappled with the issue of differentiating the properties and applications of the peony herbs. A clear and consistent picture does not immediately arise because the modern depictions of these herb materials, as found in most materia medicas and Chinese herbal guidebooks, have some discrepancies. An attempt to sort out the conflicting reports is attempted below to the extent possible with the available information.
Peony is known simply as shaoyao when not distinguishing between red and white peony; shao is the term referring to the peony plant, while yao means medicine; hence shaoyao means: the medicine made from peony. Red peony is the whole peony root with its reddish thick outer bark (epidermis) included; white peony is the peeled root; the bark is stripped off to reveal a powdery white to pink underlayer. The way in which white peony is produced is described in the Advanced Textbook on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology (6): "The root of the three or four year old plant is dug and collected in summer and autumn, washed clean with the rhizome and fibrous roots [rootlets] removed, and the rough epidermis scraped off, cooked slightly in boiling water, and finally dried in the sun." By contrast, red peony is produced simply by drying in the sun the root that has the rhizome and rootlets removed (see Figure 3).
Peony (shaoyao) was listed in the Shennong Bencao Jing (ca. 100 A.D.) with a single entry. It was described as being bitter, treating evil qi and abdominal pain, eliminating blood stasis, breaking hard gatherings, promoting urination, and boosting the qi (2). In the Tangye Bencao, (ca. 1248), peony was mentioned specifically as a treatment for abdominal pain (3), an indication retained today.
It is unclear how early the whole root (red peony) and peeled white root (white peony) were differentiated, but certainly this was accomplished by the time of the Bencao Gangmu (published 1596). In the translation of the Yinhai Jingwei (10) an ophthalmology text that was probably produced in the 16th century around the same time as the Bencao Gangmu, the two herbs are mentioned:
baishaoyao: bitter, salty, cold. It enters the liver conduit. It can supplement the spleen and diminish the liver qi. It can nourish the liver blood and drain liver fire. When the liver is depleted, and the fire weak, it can not be used.
chishaoyao: bitter, acrid, cold. It enters the liver conduit. It can disperse the blood, and it can make the blood flow. It removes redness of the skin, and stops pain.
Here, there is already a distinction that white peony supplements, while red peony disperses. The caution about the use of white peony is reflected in modern texts, such as Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica (4), which states: Use with caution in cases of diarrhea due to cold from deficiency, and in patients with weak yang and cold from deficiency."
In the translation of Yixue Zhuan Xin Lu (Heart Transmission of Medicine, 11), a book published in the latter half of the 19th century, there is a distinc