Medicinal Herbs

Fo-ti Root Extract

Reynoutria multiflora

Hà thủ ô đỏ (Reynoutria multiflora) is a perennial climber whose purplish-green stems twist around one another, hairless and smooth, carrying alternate narrow heart-shaped leaves four to eight centimetres long and loose sprays of tiny white flowers in October. It grows wild in the forested mountains, most abundantly in the north-west and then in Thanh Hóa, Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh, Lào Cai, Lai Châu and the Central Highlands; it is not yet cultivated, and takes four or five years to reach size. The tuberous root is dug in autumn, split, steamed and dried, often steamed with black beans and dried nine times over, until the slices turn black.