Dimin, also known as: Shandiran and Dijiao. It is a creeping plant of the family Melastomataceae and the genus Melastoma, 10-30 cm long; it is strigose when young and later glabrous; the leaves are hard and papery, ovate or elliptical; the cymes are terminal and the petals are light. Purple to purplish red, diamond-shaped and obovate, flowering period is from May to July, and fruiting period is from July to September.
Dimin is an excellent ground cover plant that has medicinal, ornamental and health care uses. Dimin fruit is a spherical berry with a diameter of 0.5-1.5cm. It matures in batches from July to September every year. The outer skin of the ripe fruit is dark purple, and the flesh is sweet and sour and red. It is also a good natural red pigment raw material. Mainly produced in Guizhou, Hunan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian. It grows in short grass on hillsides below 1,250 meters above sea level and is a common plant in acidic soil.
As medicine, Dimin was mainly used as a medicinal herb in the early stage of research. It tastes sweet, astringent, and is cool in nature. It has the effects of promoting blood circulation and stopping bleeding, reducing swelling and blood stasis, clearing away heat and detoxifying. It is clinically used to treat high fever, swelling and pain, sore throat, toothache, dysentery, jaundice, edema, dysmenorrhea, metrorrhagia, vaginal discharge, postpartum abdominal pain, carbuncle, sores, hemorrhoids, snake bites and other conditions. Modern clinical research reports that Dimin can be made into preparations to treat gastrointestinal bleeding, and its hemostatic effect is significant. It has also been reported that Dimin has anti-tumor, anti-aging, hypoglycemic, and hypolipidemic effects without any toxic side effects on normal cells.