Alias: Malva, Green Hemp, Malva, White Hemp.
Plant morphology: annual herb, 0.3 ~ 2 m high, with dense villous stellate hairs throughout the plant. Leaves alternate, heart-shaped, 7 ~18 cm in diameter, long sharp at the apex, coarsely serrated at the edge, and palmately veined; Petiole is long. Flowers solitary in leaf axils, calyx 5-lobed and green; Petals 5, yellow, obovate, flat and concave at the top, connate with stamen tube at the base; Stamens are numerous, and the base of filaments is connected into a tube; Carpels15 ~ 20, arranged in oblate circles, with the apex protruding like an awn. The fruit is semi-spherical and shaped like a millstone, densely covered with stellate hairs, and forms a schizocarp when it matures. The seeds are black. Flowering period is July ~1October, and fruiting period is10 ~1month. Born on roadsides, fields or cultivated. Location: Sichuan, Hubei, Henan and Jiangsu.
Harvesting: harvesting mature fruits in autumn, drying in the sun, and laying seeds.
Description: The seed is triangular and kidney-shaped, 3.5 ~ 6mm long, 2.5～4.5mm wide and1~ 2mm thick. The surface is grayish black or dark brown, with white sparse villi, oval-like hilum in the depression, light brown, and radial fine lines around it. Seed coat is hard, cotyledons 2, overlapping and folding. Slight breath, light taste.
Chemical composition: fatty oil, the main components of which are linoleic acid, oleic acid, linolenic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid and arachidic acid.
Nature and taste: flat and bitter. ?
Indications: clearing away heat, promoting diuresis, detoxicating and removing nebula. It can be used for treating red and white dysentery, gonorrhea with astringent pain and carbuncle with swollen eyes. ?