Contents:
Common Names | Parts Usually Used | Plant(s) & Culture | Where Found | Medicinal Properties | Biochemical Information
Legends, Myths and Stories | Uses | Warning | Bibliography
Scientific Names
- Paeonia officinalis L.
- Rununculaceae
- Peony family
Common Name
- Common peony
Parts Usually Used
Root
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture
The peony is a perennial plant; the thick, knobby rootstock produces a green, juicy stem from 2-3 feet high. The leaves are ternate or bi-ternate, with large, ovate-lanceolate leaflets. The large, solitary, red or purplish-red flowers resemble roses and bloom from May to August.
Other varieties: The tree peony (P. suffruticosa); the root is used similarly to the common peony. The wild peony (P. brownii); a tea from roots for lung trouble. Batipi, (N. Paiute); Doo yah gum hoo (Washoes); Newatama, (Paiute).
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Where Found
Grows wild in southern Europe and is cultivated as a garden flower elsewhere.
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Medicinal Properties
Antispasmodic, astringent, diuretic, emmenagogue, sedative
Cultivated peony used as blood tonic
Wild red peony used more as an emmenagogue
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Biochemical Information
5% asparagin and benzoic acid, also paeoniflorin, paeonol, paeonin, triterpenoids, sistosterol
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Legends, Myths and Stories
Nez Perce Indians said to be the finest light cavalry in the world at the time of Chief Joseph, were very horse-conscious, and lost no opportunity to improve horse-racing. The seeds of wild peony were chewed and then put in the horse’s mouth an instant before the race began. He always won.
According to the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), the peony was the oldest of all cultivated flowers, during the Trojan Wars. Modern botanists have no way of authenticating Pliny’s statement, but we do know that the Chinese emperor Chin Ming (2737-2697 BC) cultivated these flowers. The peony takes its name from the Greek legendary physician Paeon who first learned of the plant’s important medicinal use of lessening the pains of childbirth. Paeon was said to have been eventually transformed into a peony by Zeus. In the Middle Ages ground peony seeds were taken as a preventative against bad and melancholy dreams.
Today, the root is still valued in Chinese medicine, where 2 species are used: both the red-and-white flowered (P. lactiflora) and (P. suffruticosa) or the tree peony.
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Uses
In Europe, the Peony root is an old remedy for jaundice and for kidney and bladder problems. An extract made by steeping the root in wine was generally used. A decoction of the root has been used for gout, asthma with cramps, dysmenorrhea, and in very small doses, eclampsia. Cultivated peony used as blood tonic; wild red peony used more as an emmenagogue. Also used for chorea, epilepsy, spasms and other neurological affections. In large doses it is said to be emetic and cathartic.
Externally, bruised root applied to wounds soon heal and quickly takes away the black and blue marks of bruises and blows.
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Warning
The entire plant is poisonous, the flowers especially so. A tea made from flowers can be fatal. Do not use without medical supervision.
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Bibliography
American Folk Medicine
The Complete Medicinal Herbal
Chinese Medicinal Herbs
The Complete Medicinal Herbal
The Herbalist Almanac
The Herb Book
Indian Uses of Native Plants
Planetary Herbology
Secrets of the Chinese Herbalists
The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine
Webster’s New World Dictionary
