Common Motherwort Herb

Produced all around China.

Fresh yi mu cao: The seedling stage has no stem, heart-like leaves grow out from base, 5~9 shallow lobes at the edge, each lobe has 2~3 blunt teeth. At the early flowering stage, the stem is square and pillar-like, upper portion is often branched, four sides indented into longitudinal grooves, 30~60cm long, 0.2~0.5cm diameter; externally blue-green, tender texture, fractured surface center has pith. Alternating leaves, with stem; leaf is blue-green, tender texture, juicy when twisted; lower portion has 3 palmate lobes leaves growing from the stem, upper leaves are pinnatipartite or 3 shallow lobes, entire lobe or with few saw-teeth. faint odor, slightly bitter. Dried yi mu cao: stem surface is grayish-green or yellowish-green, light in weight, pliable texture, fractured surface center has pith. Leaf is grayish-green, often wrinkles, broken, easily broken. verticillaster grows at the axils, small flower is pale purple, calyx is tubular, corolla has two lips. Decoction pieces are about 2cm long.

Superior medicinal material has tender branch, yellowish-green color, with leaves and flowers.

Acrid, bitter, cool.

Invigorates blood, dispels stasis, adjusts menstruation, eliminates water. Apply to irregular menses, vaginal bleeding during pregnancy and difficult labor, retention of afterbirth, postpartum anemic fainting, bloody phlegm and stomachache, metrorrhagia and metrostaxis, hematuria, bloody diarrhea, furuncles and ulcers.