Bai Yao

This species is used medicinally.

Herbs, perennial, 20-60 cm tall. Rootstock fleshy, roots 1 to numerous, fusiform. Leaves 3-6, verticillate at apex of stem, palmately compound; petiole base without stipule or stipulelike appendages; leaflets obovate or obovate-oblong, 3.5-13 × 1.5-7 cm, membranous, both surfaces sparsely setose on veins, base oblique, margin biserrate, setose, apex acuminate or long acuminate. Inflorescence a solitary, terminal umbel 80-100(or more)-flowered; peduncle 7-25 cm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent; pedicels 1-2 cm, slender, slightly pubescent. Filaments ca. as long as petals. Ovary 2-carpellate; styles 2, united at least to middle, divergent in fruit. Fruit red, compressed globose-nephroid, ca. 1 cm in diam.; seeds 2, triangular-ovoid, slightly 3-ridged, thickness 5-6 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct. 2n = 24.

SE Yunnan; cultivated in Fujian, SW Guangxi, Jiangxi, Zhejiang [N Vietnam].

Forests; 1200-1800 m.

Aralia quinquefolia (Linnaeus) Decaisne & Planchon var. notoginseng Burkill, Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1902: 7. 1902; Panax pseudoginseng Wallich var. notoginseng (Burkill) G. Hoo & C. J. Tseng.

Panax notoginseng is known by many common names including San Qi. Panax notoginseng is the main ingredient in a traditional herbal powder called Yunnan Baiyao which is said to have been used by Chinese soldiers for centuries. It is supposed to counteract bleeding by promoting rapid cell division, and to improve blood circulation, to disperse blood clots and to stop inflammation and swelling. Additionally, it is said to expel pus and counteract poison. Chinese soldiers considered the medicine worth its weight in gold.

Research on the anti-inflammatory effects of the secondary metabolites produced by Panax notoginseng on rats has lead to the conclusion that it has a clearly observable anti-inflammatory effect.

Only known from cultivation. It is cultivated in Guangxi and Yunnan provinces of China and occasionally grown in Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangxi provinces.

The phylogeny of Panax using the ITS sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA (Wen and Zimmer, 1996; Lee and Wen, 2004). The ITS suggests that the Panax notoginseng is basal to the clade consisting of P. bipinnatifidus, P. ginseng, P. japonicus, P. quinquefolius, and P. vietnamensis. Based on the morphological variation and the phylogenetic relationships, Wen (2001) proposed a classification scheme for Panax, in which Panax notoginseng belong to Subgenus Panax, Section Panax, Series Notoginseng

Tuberous root carrot-like. Leaves with 3-7 leaflets, oblong to ovate, dark green to yellowish green on the upper surface, soft bristly on both surfaces, bristles on upper surface denser and longer. Umbels solitary, 80-100-flowered. Fruit red, 2-3-seeded. Seeds 5-8 mm long, ovately subglobose.

The powdered root of Panax notoginseng is the main ingredient in the well known medicine “bai-yao”, which is effective in stopping bleeding and preventing swelling, blood clogging and infection. Paste from sanchi root was used in China for arthritis. Some claimed that sanchi syrup may lower blood pressure.

Roots

Panax notoginseng is a species of the genus Panax, and it is commonly referred to in English as Chinese ginseng or notoginseng. In Chinese it is called tiánqī (田七), tienchi ginseng, sānqī (三七) or sanchi, three-seven root, and mountain plant. P. notoginseng belongs to the same scientific genus as Panax ginseng. In Latin, the word panax means "cure-all", and the family of ginseng plants is one of the best-known herbs.

P. notoginseng grows naturally in China. The herb is a perennial with dark green leaves branching from a stem with a red cluster of berries in the middle. It is both cultivated and gathered from wild forests, with wild plants being the most valuable. The Chinese refer to it as three-seven root because the plant has three petioles with seven leaflets each. It is also said that the root should be harvested between three and seven years after planting it.