Bai Shao (白芍) is revered as a flower fairy and is listed among the six famous flowers. It is also known as the May Flower God, historically regarded as a flower of love, and is now honored as one of the representative flowers of the Qixi Festival. Additionally, Bai Shao plays a significant role in “Dream of the Red Chamber,” where Shi Xiangyun dreams of sleeping on Bai Shao petals, making it one of the most beautiful scenes in the novel.
During the Qing Dynasty, poet Liu Kai, who resided in Bozhou, wrote: “Outside the small yellow city, the Bai Shao flowers bloom, ten miles and five miles bathed in morning glow. Before and after the flowers, there are families, each family grows flowers like mulberry and hemp.” This verse praises Bai Shao flowers.
However, the root of the Bai Shao plant is also a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine, which is the first herb we will share today.
Let us first look at the 2020 version of Bai Shao’s source. Here, I want to mention the source of medicinal materials. Many people think that the source of medicinal materials refers to a certain family of a certain plant or a certain animal’s medicinal part, but this is not comprehensive. In our pharmacopoeia, the general principles, item and requirements, Article 17 specifically mentions that the source of medicinal materials includes the family name, plant (animal) name, Latin name, medicinal part, and harvesting season and processing location. Additionally, for mineral medicines, it should specify the category, family, mineral name, or rock name, and main components. This means that the harvesting season and processing location are also part of the source of medicinal materials.
Now, let’s look at the source of Bai Shao. Bai Shao is the dried root of the plant Paeonia lactiflora (毛茛科植物芍药). It is harvested in summer and autumn, cleaned, and the head, tail, and fine roots are removed. It is then boiled in water to remove the outer skin or peeled before boiling, and finally dried. This is the source specification for Bai Shao in the 2015 version. From the source, we can see that Bai Shao is described with the following information: it belongs to the family Ranunculaceae, and the medicinal part is the dried root, harvested in summer and autumn, and the processing method is boiling to remove the skin or peeling and then boiling before drying. This is the source of Bai Shao as a medicinal material. Now, let’s look at the scenes of Bai Shao cultivation and harvesting.
Bai Shao sprouts breaking through the soil
Fresh leaves sprouting in spring
Bai Shao flourishing in summer
Then Bai Shao will continue to grow, producing flower buds, fruits, and seeds.
Flower buds and Bai Shao flowers
Gradually producing fruits
Generally, when Bai Shao produces flower buds, farmers will use sickles to cut off the flower buds to prevent Bai Shao from blooming, which helps concentrate nutrients in the roots, thereby increasing yield. We see that the fruits of Bai Shao are not large, and the seeds inside are also very small. Therefore, Bai Shao is generally not propagated by seeds.
So, how is Bai Shao propagated if not by seeds? Let’s continue to look at the next image.
Bai Shao with bud tubers (commonly known as flower buds)
This is the tuber of Bai Shao, and Bai Shao is directly planted in the ground. After planting, the tuber will continue to grow Bai Shao roots, and it is harvested after about four years. This concludes our overview of Bai Shao cultivation; now let’s look at the harvesting and processing of Bai Shao.
Freshly harvested Bai Shao
Separating fresh Bai Shao from the mother root
Removing the surface dirt
Traditional fresh Bai Shao roots boiled and peeled
Fresh Bai Shao in market transactions
Modern Bai Shao automated initial processing production system
Modern Bai Shao automated initial processing workshop
Modern Bai Shao automated fresh-cut processing workshop
Modern Bai Shao automated initial processing with wastewater treatment
Dried Bai Shao
This is the entire process of Bai Shao cultivation, harvesting, and processing. Now let’s look at Bai Shao slices.
Different shapes of Bai Shao slices
Different sizes of round Bai Shao slices
Bai Shao decoction pieces
Fried Bai Shao decoction pieces
Fried Bai Shao decoction pieces with bran
Wine-fried Bai Shao decoction pieces
Here, I want to mention the pharmacopoeia’s description of sliced products. Let’s look at the description in the pharmacopoeia regarding processing rules!
I’ve created a mnemonic here for everyone to remember!
According to the pharmacopoeia, Bai Shao slices are described as thin, round slices. Let’s look at the thickness of common Bai Shao slices!
Different thicknesses of Bai Shao slices
Bai Shao slices (thin, round slices)
The pharmacopoeia describes Bai Shao slices as thin, round slices, stating that the thickness should be 1-2 millimeters, meaning that slices thicker than 2 millimeters do not meet the pharmacopoeia’s requirements for Bai Shao slice thickness.
Having discussed Bai Shao slices, let’s now look at Bai Shao, Hei Bai Shao (Black Peony), and Chi Shao (Red Peony).
Comparison of medicinal materials
Comparison of slices
We just mentioned that Bai Shao is the product of the root of the Peony plant after boiling, peeling, and drying, while Hei Bai Shao is the product of the root of the Peony plant that is dried directly. Now let’s look at the source of Chi Shao, which is the dried root of either Paeonia lactiflora or Paeonia veitchii. This means that the plant sources of Chi Shao include those of Bai Shao. The processing location of Hei Bai Shao also aligns with that of Chi Shao.
As for whether Hei Bai Shao can be used as Chi Shao, opinions vary, but according to the pharmacopoeia, Hei Bai Shao meets the source requirements for Chi Shao.
Now, let’s move on to Mu Dan Pi (牡丹皮). First, let’s appreciate the Peony flower.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the Peony was regarded as China’s national flower. The Peony has a cultivation history of thousands of years and is widely grown in China. The Peony flower is celebrated as the king of flowers, and there is a rich cultural and artistic heritage surrounding it. Among them, Tang Dynasty poet Liu Yuxi wrote: “In front of the courtyard, Bai Shao is enchanting without comparison, while the lotus on the pond is less emotional. Only the Peony is truly national in color, blooming in season, stirring the capital.” This verse praises the Peony flower.
Having discussed the Peony flower, let’s now look at the traditional Chinese medicine Mu Dan Pi.First, let’s look at the source of Mu Dan Pi in the 2015 version of the pharmacopoeia.
Mu Dan Pi is the dried root bark of the plant Paeonia suffruticosa (毛茛科植物牡丹). It is harvested in autumn, with the roots dug up, fine roots and soil removed, the root bark stripped, and then dried or scraped to remove the coarse skin and the wood core. The former is commonly known as Lian Dan Pi, while the latter is known as Guo Dan Pi.
The Peony is a perennial deciduous shrub, generally harvested after about five years. Now let’s look at the cultivation and harvesting of Peony.
Peony sprouting in spring
Peony leaves
Then the Peony will continue to grow, producing flower buds, blooming, and developing fruits and seeds.
Peony flower buds
Peony flowers
Peony fruits
Peony fruits and seeds
This concludes our overview of Peony cultivation; now let’s look at the harvesting and processing of Peony.
Freshly harvested Peony
Peony heart removal machine (mainly used to score the Peony for easier wood core removal)
After harvesting, there are two processing methods for Peony: one is to remove the skin and then the wood core, known as Guo Dan Pi, and the other is to remove the wood core directly without skinning, known as Lian Dan Pi.
Guo Dan Pi drying in the sun
Guo Dan Pi and Lian Dan Pi
Dan Pi phenol crystals
It is generally believed that the more crystals of the same dryness of Mu Dan Pi, the better the quality. Now let’s look at Mu Dan Pi slices.
The first two are unsulfured Mu Dan Pi slices, known as Lian Dan Pi and Guo Dan Pi, while the third is sulfured Mu Dan Pi. We can clearly see that the sulfured cross-section is whiter. The fourth and fifth are unsulfured and sulfured Mu Dan Pi that have not had their cores removed.
The pharmacopoeia does not require the removal of the wood core, so why are there still unshelled Mu Dan Pi on the market? This is because there are size differences in Mu Dan Pi during harvesting. The larger ones are generally cored, while the smaller ones are more troublesome to core, so many are left unprocessed or only the ends are cored. Therefore, there is a concept of core removal rate, which refers to the proportion of Mu Dan Pi with the wood core removed compared to the total Mu Dan Pi, which is a different concept from impurities.
For beginners, many people cannot distinguish between Mu Dan Pi and Bai Xian Pi (白鲜皮). In fact, the two are quite different. Let’s first look at the images.
Comparison of medicinal materials
Comparison of slices
These two images show a comparison of the original medicinal materials and slices. Bai Xian Pi generally has a surface with raised granules, and the cross-section is layered, with a sheep-like odor. Upon careful comparison, the two have distinct differences.