Gentiana macrophylla Pall. Fl. Ross.

Gentiana macrophylla Pall. Fl. Ross.

Photo alchetron.com

Latin Name: Gentiana macrophylla Pall. Fl. Ross.; Family Gentianaceae

Synonym Name: Dasystephana macrophylla (Pall.) Zuev; Ericoila macrophylla Bercht. & J.Presl; Gentiana jakutensis Bunge ex Griseb.; Gentiana macrophylla var. macrophylla; Gentiana macrophylla var. minor Ledeb.; Gentiana quinquenervia Turrill; Hippion macrophyllum F.W.Schmidt; Pneumonanthe macrophylla (Pall.) Zuev; Tretorhiza macrophylla (Pall.) Soják

English Name: Qinjiu, Largeleaf Gentian

Chinese name: 秦艽 qin jiao.

Vietnamese name: Tần giao

Description: Perennials 30-60 cm tall. Roots to 30 × 2 cm. Stems ascending to erect, stout, simple, glabrous. Basal leaves petiole 3-5 cm, membranous; leaf blade elliptic-lanceolate to elliptic-ovate, 6-28 × 2.5-6 cm, base narrowed, margin scabrous, apex acuminate, veins 5-7. Stem leaves 3-5 pairs; petiole to 4 cm, membranous; leaf blade elliptic-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 4.5-15 × 1.2-3.5 cm, base obtuse, margin scabrous, apex acuminate, veins 3-5. Inflorescences crowded into terminal clusters, many flowered, sometimes also in few-flowered axillary whorls; axillary whorls sessile, rarely on pedunclelike branches. Flowers sessile. Calyx tube spathelike, membranous, split on 1 side; lobes 4 or 5, dentiform, 0.5-1 mm. Corolla blue-purple, with pale yellow base, tubular or urceolate; lobes ovate, 3-4.5 mm, margin entire, apex obtuse to subrounded; plicae triangular, 1-1.5 mm, margin entire, apex acute. Stamens inserted just below middle of corolla tube; filaments 5-7 mm; anthers narrowly ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm. Style 1.5-2 mm; stigma lobes oblong. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, 1.5-1.7 cm; gynophore short. Seeds light brown, ellipsoid, 1.2-1.5 mm. Flowering: July to September; fruiting: August to October.

Distribution: Growing along river beaches, roadsides, ditch sides, grasslands of mountain slopes, in meadow, forests and forest edges. Distributed in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Xinjiang. The medicinal materials are mainly produced in Shaanxi and Gansu.

Part Used: Medical part: roots.

Harvest & Processing: Excavated in spring and summer, removed cauline leaves, sun-dried to soft, heaped up to emit heat naturally, sun-dried when the inside of the root become flesh red. Or sun-dried the roots directly after excavated.

Chemistry: Contains flavonoids, iridoids, secoiridoids, polysaccharides, xanthones. Root contains gentianine, gentianidine, gentiopieroside, gentiopicroside and swertiamarin. Amide (qinjiaoamide), iridoid (erythrocentaurin acid),  erythrocentaurin, roburic acid, oleanolic acid, sweroside and 6'-O-βDglucosylgentiopicroside

Pharmacology: Anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving, anti-allergic shock, analgesic effects, antihistamine and having effect on cardiac and blood pressure; toxic.  

Properties & Actions: Bitter, pungent, little cold. Removing wind-damp, relaxing meridians, clearing deficient heat, inducing urination and removing jaundice.

Indications & Usage  Used for rheumatic arthralgia, contracture of bones and muscles, motor impairment of hands and feet, osteopyrexia, infantile malnutrition with fever, jaundice with damp-heat pathogen. Oral administration: decocting, 5-10g; or made as medicinal liquor; or made as pills or powders. External application: appropriate amount, powdered and scattered.

Examples      

1. Wind headache: gentian, angelica dahurica, szechwan lovage rhizome ligusticum 6g each, China ligusticum 9g. Decoct in water and swallow.

2. Epidemic madness: gentian 25g (remove sprouts), isatis indigotica 25g, ural licorice 25g (slightly parched to be red, and file into pieces). Pestle and sieve the above drugs into a powder. Swallow 10g with fresh rehmannia juice at any time.

References

Chinese Medicinal Material Images Database

efloras.org

Theplantlist

Jiang ZB, Liu HL, Liu XQ, Shang JN, Zhao JR, Yuan CS. Chemical constituents of Gentiana macrophylla Pall. Nat Prod Res. 2010;24(14):1365–1369.

Jia N, Li Y, Wu Y, et al. Comparison of the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of Gentiana macrophylla Pall. and Gentiana straminea Maxim., and identification of their active constituents. J Ethnopharmacol. 2012;144(3):638–645.