Atractylodes lancea Seeds | Mao Cang Zhu

Dried cang zhu rhizome, knotted and pale brown — Mao cang zhu rhizome (*Atractylodes lancea*): Asteraceae, native to northern China.

LATIN NAME: Atractylodes lancea

COMMON NAME: Mao Cang Zhu

Plant Profile

Atractylodes lancea is a perennial herb of the daisy family, growing from a knotted, woody rhizome that sends up a stem forty to eighty centimetres tall with deeply divided, leathery leaves and a single thistle-like flower head in late summer. It grows on dry, stony slopes and in thin grassland across central and northern China.

The rhizome is the drug, sold as cang zhu, and it is lifted in autumn, cleaned, dried and sometimes singed to remove the fine root hairs. The smell is strong and resinous, closer to cedar than to a kitchen herb. In the wild it is often the only herb on grazed slopes, since livestock avoid it because of the resin.

Science & Biotechnology

The essential oil contains atractylodin, atractylone and beta-eudesmol, and these are the compounds used to standardise the drug. Laboratory work reports effects on gastric secretion, on inflammatory signalling and on gut motility, and there is a small Chinese clinical literature on its use in digestive complaints.

The plant is one of the classic herbs for what Chinese medicine calls dampness, a category with no direct laboratory equivalent. Its practical interest to a grower is the quality difference between rhizomes from different soils: material from limestone slopes is denser, more aromatic and worth more than material from rich ground. The rhizome is also used as a fumigant in stables and hen houses, burned slowly to drive off insects, a practice that survives in the countryside. Plants in the wild are dug for the market, and wild rhizome is often smaller and more aromatic than cultivated material, which is why the two are sold separately.

Uses & Benefits

Decocted at three to nine grams, cang zhu is used for poor appetite, bloating and heavy limbs, usually in combination with other aromatics. It is also burned as a fumigant in some traditions, and the smoke is used to purify rooms.

The herb is warming and drying, and it is avoided in people who are thin and dry, and in pregnancy. Because it is aromatic, the oil is lost if the rhizome is boiled too long, so it is added late in a decoction. Overdose causes dry mouth and headache rather than anything more serious.

Growing from Seed

Seed germination is poor and erratic. Fresh seed sown in autumn, with a cold winter to break dormancy, gives the best results; stored seed often fails altogether. Sow on the surface of a gritty mix and keep the bed moist but open.

Plants want full sun, sharp drainage and a lean, stony soil; rich ground produces lush leaf and poor rhizome. Divide the rhizome in spring or autumn every third year to keep the clump vigorous. Lift at two to three years in late autumn, and dry the rhizome slowly in shade to keep the oil.

Our Take

A medicinal herb for poor, stony ground, where the rhizome is denser and more aromatic than anything rich soil will give.

Herb Seeds