Guanxian Chuanxiong

Guanxian Chuanxiong

　　Chuanxiong is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Umbelliferae family. Its rhizome is yellowish-brown. The leaves are bipinnate to tripinnate, with three to five pairs of small leaflets, whose edges are irregularly pinnately lobed or deeply dissected. The flowers are white and grow in compound umbels. The fruits are ovate with sharp ridges. Guanxian Chuanxiong is typically bred in mountainous areas and cultivated in plains. Every year during the Beginning of Autumn season when wild mountain Chuanxiong is harvested, the nodules on its stems are transported to the plains for cultivation. During the Beginning of Spring, a portion is then dug up and moved back to the mountains for breeding. The remaining rhizomes, called "mother rhizomes," left after harvesting the Chuanxiong knobs in Beginning of Autumn are known as "mountain Chuanxiong." This type of Chuanxiong has prominent nodules, a hard texture, low oil content, and becomes dry and less plump after processing, hence the name "mountain nodule." The Chuanxiong cultivated in the plains takes until the Lesser Fullness period of the following year to mature, and those harvested at that time are called "dam Chuanxiong," which are of superior quality. Fuxiong refers to immature Chuanxiong bred in high mountains and harvested after the Beginning of Spring; once dried, its core is not solid and its quality is relatively inferior.

Chuanxiong is used medicinally for its dried rhizome. It is warm in nature and pungent in taste, with effects including sedation, pain relief, sleep induction, blood pressure reduction, and dilation of the coronary arteries, thereby increasing coronary blood flow.