Actinidia chinensis

Actinidia chinensis Planch.

(Actinidia chinensis Planch.; Photo pinterest.com)

Latin Name: Actinidia chinensis Planch.

Family: Actinidiaceae; Genus: Actinidia

Synonym Name: Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis; Actinidia chinensis f. jinggangshanensis C.F.Liang; Actinidia chinensis var. jinggangshanensis (C.F.Liang) C.F.Liang & A.R.Ferguso; Actinidia chinensis var. latifolia A.Chev.; Actinidia chinensis f. rufopulpa C.F.Liang & R.H.Huang; Actinidia chinensis var. rufopulpa (C.F.Lianf & R.H.Huang) C.F.Liang & A.R.Ferguson; Actinidia multipetaloides H.Z. Jiang

English Name: Yangtao Actinidia, Chinese Actinidia, Yangtao Kiwifruit, Chinese Gooseberry, Yangtao

Chinese name: 中华猕猴桃 zhong hua mi hou tao

Vietnamese Name: Kiwi, Mi Hầu Đào

Description: Climbing shrubs, large, deciduous. Branchlets reddish, with paler oblong lenticels, young branchlets white pubescent to brownish long strigose or densely ferruginous hispid-setose; pith whitish to brown, large, lamellate. Petiole 3-6(-10) cm, white pubescent or brownish long strigose to densely ferruginous hispid-setose; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, broadly ovate to broadly obovate or suborbicular, 6-17 × 7-15 cm, papery, abaxially whitish or brownish stellate tomentose, adaxially usually glabrous, occasionally ± puberulent, especially more densely so on midvein and lateral veins, or densely scabrid-hispid throughout, midvein and lateral veins conspicuous abaxially, subconspicuous adaxially, lateral veins 5-8 pairs, furcate above middle, veinlets in parallel cross-bars, conspicuous abaxially, base rounded to truncate to cordatulate, margin setose-serrulate with teeth terminating tips of veinlets, apex truncate to emarginate to abruptly cuspidate or shortly acuminate. Inflorescences cymose, 1-3-flowered, white silky-tomentose or yellowish brown velutinous; peduncles 0.7-1.5 cm; pedicels 0.9-1.5 cm; bracts linear, ca. 1 mm. Flowers orange-yellow. Sepals (3-)5(-7), broadly ovate to oblong-ovate, 6-10 mm, both surfaces densely yellowish tomentose. Petals (3-)5(-8), rarely with a second whorl of 2 smaller petals, broadly obovate, 1-2 cm, shortly clawed at base, rounded at apex. Filaments 5-10 mm; anthers yellow, oblong, 1.5-2 mm, sagittate at base or not, apex acute to rounded. Ovary globose, ca. 5 mm in diam., densely golden villous. Fruit subglobose to cylindric to obovoid or ellipsoidal, 4-6 cm, densely tomentose when young, glabrous when mature to densely hispid, with many brownish lenticels; persistent sepals reflexed. Flowering: June to July; fruiting: August to September.

Distribution: Growing on hillsides at altitude 700-2,200m, forest margins and thickets. Distributed in South-central China, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and etc.

Part Used: Medical part: roots, cane or cane juice, branches, leaves and fruits. Chinese name: roots: Mihoutaogen. Cane or cane juice: Mihoutaoteng. Branches and leaves: Mihoutaozhiye. Fruits: Mihoutao.

Harvest & Processing: Roots: harvested throughout the year. Cut into sections, used fresh o sun-dried. Better excavated in turns after planting for 10 years. Cane or cane juice: can be harvested throughout the year, used fresh or sun-dried, or smash fresh products to abstract juice. Branches and leaves: harvested in June-July, used fresh or sun-dried. Fruits: harvested mature fruits in mid- and late Sep to early Oct, used fresh or sun-dried.

Chemistry: Triterpenoids, flavonoids, polyphenols, anthraquinones, and coumarins, vitamin C, carbohydrate, amino acid, volatile compound, essential oil and minerals

- Roots mainly contain actinidia chinensis polysaccharide and rich ascorbic acid.

- Fruits mainly contain tactinidine, emodin, physcion, emodic acid, rich vitamins, free amino acid, organic acids, pigment and tannins.

Pharmacology: Roots: anti-tumor, immunity-regulating. Cane or cane juice: antitumor, and antioxidative. Fruits: cancer-resistant, aging-delaying, anoxia-resistant, blood-fat-decreasing, hepatic-protective and anti-inflammatory.

Properties & Actions: Root: little sweet, harsh, cool. Mild-toxic. Fruits: sour, sweet, cold. Roots: clearing fever and damp, activating blood, and relieving swelling. Branches and leaves: clearing heat and detoxifying and arresting bleeding. Fruits: clearing heat, quenching thirsty, harmonizing stomach and treating stranguria.

Indications & Usage  Root: hepatitis, dysentery, dyspepsia, edema, stranguria with turbid urine, leukorrhea, rheumatic arthralgia, injuries from falls, scrofula and tuberculosis. Branches and leaves: mammary abscess, scalding injuries, pain of rheumatic joints and traumatic hemorrhage. Fruits: feverish dysphoria, diabetes, dyspepsia, jaundice, stranguria caused by urinary stones, hemorrhoids. Roots: oral administration: decocting, 30-60g. Roots: oral administration: decocting, 30-60g. Branches and leaves: external application: in smashed or powdered form. Fruits: oral administration: decocting, 30-60g; or eaten raw or extracted juice. Use with caution in deficiency and cold of spleen and stomach.

Examples:     

1. Diabetes: yangtao actinidia 60g, radix trichosanthis 30g. Decoct in water and swallow.

2. Stranguria with turbid urine and leucorrhea: yangtao actinidia 30-60g, ramie root in equal amounts. Appropriately adding water to decoct, take 2 times a day.

3. Scalding: yangtao actinidia leaves, grind into paste, add a little lime, and smear onto the affected lesions.

References

- libproject.hkbu.edu.hk

- efloras.org

- theplantlist

- Xirui He, Jiacheng Fang, Xufei Chen, Zefeng Zhao, Yongsheng Li, Yibing Meng and Linhong Huang; Actinidia chinensis Planch.: A Review of Chemistry and Pharmacology; Front. Pharmacol., 2019