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Aesculus chinensis Bunge
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English Name |
Chinese Buckeye, Chinese Horse-chestnut, China Buckeye |
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Latin name |
Aesculus chinensis Bunge |
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Family & Genus |
Hippocastanaceae, Aesculus |
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Description |
Deciduous trees, up to 25m. Small branches glabrous or slightly pubescent when young, with round or elliptic pale yellow lenticels. Winter buds with resin. Palmated compound leaves with 5-7 leaflets, petioles 10-12cm long, slightly grey hairs, leaflets papery, long-lanceolate or long-inverted lanceolate, rare long-elliptic, 8-16cm long, 3-5cm wide, base cuneate or wide cuneate, sparsely pubescent on lower veins when young, lateral veins 13-17 pairs, leaflets petioles in the middle 1-1.8cm long, lateral leaflets petioles 0.5-1cm, rachis slightly pubescent, small inflorescence with 5-10 flowers, 2-2.5cm long, flowers polygamous, male flowers and bisexual flowers polygamy, calyx tubular- campanulate, 3-5mm, external slightly pubescent, unequal 5 lobes, petals 4, white, long-obovoid or long-inverted lanceolate, 0.8-1.2cm long, margin ciliary, stamens 6, 1.8-2cm long, ovary ovate in bisexual flowers, style colorless. Fruits spherical or obovoid, diameter 3-4cm, yellow-brown, no prickles, dense spots, shuck 5-6mm thick when dry. Seeds 1-2, nearly spherical, chestnut brown, hilum white, ca. 1/2 of the volume of seeds. Flowering:April to May, fruiting: October. |
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Distribution |
Growing in broad-leave forests at altitude 1,000-1,800m. Distributed in South Gansu, South Shaanxi, Henan, West Hubei and Northwest Hunan. Cultivated in Sichuan, Hebei, South Shanxi and etc. The medicinal materials are produced in Hanzhong and Ankang of Shaanxi, Xixia and Songxian of Henan, Hangzhou of Zhejiang, Yixing, Jingjiang and Liyang of Jiangsu. |
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Part Used |
Medical part: dried or mature seeds. Chinese name: Suoluozi. |
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Harvest & Processing |
Harvested in autumn when fruits are mature, removed peels and sun-dried or dried under low temperature. |
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Chemistry |
Mainly contains oleinic acid, glycerol tristearate and aescine. |
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Pharmacology |
Anti-inflammatory and cholesterol-lowing; toxic. |
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Properties & Actions |
Sweet, warm.Soothing the liver and regulating the qi, alleviating middle energizer and arresting pain. |
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Indications & Usage |
Swelling and pain in the chest and hypochondrium, breasts, algomenorrhea, epigastric pain.Oral administration: decocting, 5-10g, or burned into powder then taken after mixed with wine. Use with caution in patients with qi-yin deficiency. |
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Examples |
1. Treat stomachache: buckeye 1, remove shell, crush and decoct, swallow the decoction.
2. Treat nine types of stomachache: buckeye burned ash, swallow with alcohol.
3. Treat breast lobule hyperplasia: buckeye 9-15g. Decoct in water and drink as tea. |
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Permanent URL：https://sys01.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/cmed/mpid/detail.php?herb_id=D00263 |
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