Herbological Study of Red Peony and White Peony Used in Chinese Medicine / 日本東洋医学雑誌

ABSTRACT

In China, the roots of several species of Paeonia plants in the Paeoniaceae family have been used as crude drugs under the names of Ji-shao-yao, or the red peony, and Bai-shao-yao, or the white peony, since olden times. While in Japan, the simply dried root of Paeonia lactiflora Pallas has been used as the Chinese crude drug Shao-yao, or Shakuyaku in Japanese. As for the origins of the modern “red” and “white” peony names, there have been a variety of theories, e.g. the names were perhaps derived from differences in their root or flower colors, or whether they were wild or cultivated. Based on our herbological study, we have concluded that the dried root with a cork surface was named the red peony, and those peeled cork layers, the white peony. During the Ming Dynasty, in China, the root of wild peonies such as Paeonia veiitchii and P. obovata, whose flowers are reddish, were processed into the red peony, while cultivated peony root of the white flowered variety, P. lactiflora, was processed into the white peony drug. Because of this coincidence in flower color and name of the processed product, red flowered varieties or wild plants came to be called the plant origin of the red peony, while the white flowered varieties or cultivated plants came to be called the white peony.