Acer palmatum

Acer palmatum Thunb.

(Acer palmatum Thunb. Photo commons.wikimedia.org)

Latin Name: Acer palmatum Thunb.

Family: Aceraceae; Genus: Acer

Synonym: Acer palmatum subsp. amoenum; Acer palmatum subsp. matsumurae; Acer palmatum subsp. palmatum; Acer palmatum f. palmatum Thunb.; Acer palmatum f. sanguineum (Carrière) Schwer.; Acer palmatum var. atropurpureum Van Houtte; Acer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq.; Acer sanguineum Carrière

Chinese name: 鸡爪枫 ji zhua feng

English Name: Japanese Maple, Greenleaf Japanese Maple, Japanese Maple Cultivars.

Vietnamese Name: Cây Phong châu tinh, Cây thích châu tinh, Phong nhật, Thích nhật

Description: Trees deciduous, andromonoecious, to 15 m tall. Bark greenish gray or light brown, smooth. Branchlets grayish green, glabrous; winter buds purplish red, conical, small, with 5 pairs of scales, ciliate, terminal buds usually absent. Petiole 2-6 cm; leaf blade suborbicular, 3-6 × 4-8 cm, membranous to papery, yellowish brown pubescent when unfolding, soon glabrous except for axillary tuft of hairs on abaxial surface, base cordate to subtruncate, palmately 5- or 7-lobed to middle; lobes lanceolate, margin irregularly doubly serrate, apex long acuminate. Inflorescence corymbose-paniculate, 10-20-flowered, 3-4 cm, half-pendulous, subtended by 1 or 2 pairs of leaves. Flowers opening with leaves. Sepals 5, purplish red, oblong to oblanceolate, ca. 3 mm, pubescent near margin. Petals pale yellow to pinkish white, broadly obovate, smaller than sepals, glabrous. Stamens 8, exserted, ca. 3.5 mm, shorter in pistillate flowers, inserted at inside of disk. Ovary glabrous; style long, topped by divergent stigmas. Abortive pistil in staminate flowers minute. Samaras ca. 1.5 cm with wing, glabrous; wings spreading at obtuse angle; nutlets elliptic-convex, only slightly veined with thin, weak wal. Flowering: May, fruiting: September.

Distribution: Growing in forest margins or thin forests at altitude 200-1,200m. Distributed in Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou and etc.

Part Used: Medical part: branches and leaves. Chinese name: Jizhaoqi.

Harvest & Processing: Harvested branches and leaves in summer, dun-dry and cut into section.

Chemistry: Leaves contain vitexin, saponaretin, orientin, homoorientin, cyanidin monoglycoside, delphindin monoglycoside and peonidin monoglycoside.

Pharmacology: Treatment of rheumatism, bruises, hepatic disorders, eye disease, and pain, antitumor activity and in detoxification

Properties & Actions: Pungent, little bitter, neutral. Promoting qi circulation and relieving pain, detoxifying and removing carbuncle.

Indications & Usage: Abdominal pain because of qi stagnation, carbuncles on back. Oral administration: decocting, 5-10g. External application: proper dosage, smashed for applying.

Examples:     

1. Abdominal pain: Japanese maple 6-9g. Roast and eat with water, 3 times a day.

2. Back wart: an appropriate amount of Japanese maple, simmer with water, wash the lesions; 15g, simmer in water, and swallow.

References

- Chinese Medicinal Material Images Database

- efloras.org

- theplantlist

- Masakazu Aritomi; Studies on the chemical Constituents in leaves of Acer palmatum Thunberg; 1962 Pharmaceutical Society of Japan 82(9):1329-1331

- Wu Bi, Wu BiYing, GaoYing Gao, Jie Shen, Show aPei-Gen, XiaoPei-Gen Xiao; Traditional uses, phytochemistry, and pharmacology of the genus Acer (maple): A review 2016 Journal of ethnopharmacology 189