Medicinal Herbs

Paris Polyphylla Root Extract

Paris polyphylla

Paris polyphylla, bảy lá một hoa, is a small perennial of unusual form: a short, knotty rhizome five to fifteen centimetres long, hard to snap and floury at the break, sends up a single erect stem to about a metre. Halfway up sits one whorl of three to ten leaves — usually seven, hence the Vietnamese name — and above them a solitary flower on a long stalk, its green sepals, usually seven, leaf-like, and its narrow petals hanging down, yellow-brown. The berry ripens purple-black. It grows in the mountains at Cúc Phương, Sapa, Đà Bắc and Sơn Động. The rhizome is dug in autumn and winter, washed and sun-dried.