Medicinal Herbs

Polyscias Root Extract

Polyscias fruticosa

Polyscias (Polyscias fruticosa) is a small, smooth-stemmed shrub without thorns, usually 0.8 to 1.5 metres tall, its feathery leaves 20-40cm long, divided three times into leaflets with uneven teeth, and carrying a distinct fragrance. It is planted throughout Vietnam, largely as an ornamental, and also grows in Laos and southern China. Cooks use the leaves in gỏi cá, the raw fish salad that gives the plant its other Vietnamese name, cây gỏi cá. The root is the part collected: dug up, washed free of soil, dried in the sun or a dryer, then sliced thin and simmered in water or steeped in low-strength spirit.