Gynostemma pentaphyllum Seeds | Jiaogulan
LATIN NAME: Gynostemma pentaphyllum
COMMON NAME: Jiaogulan
Plant Profile
Jiaogulan is a climbing herbaceous vine, 2-4 m, with palmate leaves of five to seven leaflets and small greenish flowers, followed by tiny black berries. The leaves are the crop, and they are picked through the season and dried for tea.
The plant climbs by tendrils and will cover a trellis, a fence or a low tree within a season. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants, and the female plants carry the berries.
Gynostemma pentaphyllum comes from southern China and south-east Asia, where it grows in shade at forest edges. It is known as the immortality herb in parts of southern China, a name that says more about local enthusiasm than about the evidence.
Science & Biotechnology
The leaves contain gypenosides, dammarane saponins that are structurally similar to the ginsenosides of ginseng, which is why the plant is marketed as ginseng’s poor relation. Some of the same saponins occur in both plants, but the profiles are not identical and the effects cannot be assumed to be the same.
Extracts have shown antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and lipid-lowering activity in animal studies, and there are small human trials on cholesterol and on fatigue. The evidence base is thin, and the marketing of the plant has run well ahead of the research.
The plant is also a vegetable in southern China, where the young shoots are cooked like spinach. That use is the safest one: a leafy green with a slightly bitter taste, eaten as food rather than as a medicine.
Uses & Benefits
The dried leaves make a tea that is mildly bitter and sweet, and the young shoots are eaten as a vegetable. The plant is also sold as an extract in capsules and as an ingredient in functional drinks.
In the garden the vine is grown as an ornamental climber and as a tea crop, and it is useful for covering a shady fence quickly. Commercially the leaf is a traded herb and the extract a significant product in the Chinese supplement market. In southern China the fresh leaf is blanched and dressed, and the young shoots are stir-fried with garlic.
Growing from Seed
Sow at 22-28°C, 1 cm deep, after soaking the seed for a day. Germination takes two to three weeks. The seed is slow to start and the seedlings need warmth and light.
Plant out at 50 cm apart against a trellis, in light shade or sun, in moist, well-drained soil. Water regularly and mulch. Pinch the growing tips to encourage branching, and harvest the leaves and shoots through the summer, taking no more than a third of the growth at a time. The plant dies back in winter and regrows from the root in spring. Give the vine a strong trellis, since a mature plant is heavy once it is in full leaf.
Our Take
A tea crop and a climbing ornamental at once, best used as a green vegetable rather than as a substitute for ginseng.
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