One of the peony, first contained in the "Divine Husbandman's Classic of the Materia Medica", from Tao Hongjing, divided into white peony, red peony two kinds. At present, white paeoniae is mostly cultivated, red paeoniae is mostly wild species, but in some areas, such as Shaanxi produced Baoji white peony, is also a wild species and as white peony users. The roots are thin and curved, unequal in size, with more corky skin and fibrous root scars, loose texture, small powderiness, inconspicuous rays on the cross-section, and inferior in quality

From the literature of traditional Chinese medicine and from the clinical point of view:

Nourishes blood and softens the liver, eases the pain in the middle of the body, and converges the yin and collects the sweat

Bitter and sour, cool.　Enters the liver and spleen meridians.

Pain in the chest, abdomen, coercion and ribs, diarrhea and abdominal pain, spontaneous sweating and night sweating, fever due to yin deficiency, menstrual disorders, disintegration and leucorrhea.

From the western medicine pharmacology research:

1. the role of the cardiovascular system: white peony has a dilation of coronary arteries, lowering blood pressure (d-catechin and gallic acid ethyl ester has an antithrombotic and antiplatelet aggregation effect) 2. hepatoprotective: white peony carbon tetrachloride, aflatoxin B1.D-galactosamine caused by hepatic injury has a significant protective effect 3. antispasmodic effect: white peony on intestinal tubes and in situ gastric motility. On the intestinal tube and in situ gastric motility inhibitory effect, can significantly oppose oxytocin-induced uterine contractions 4. Analgesic effect: Paeonia lactiflora can inhibit mouse torsion, hissing, hot plate reaction, the morphine inhibition of torsion of the body reaction has a synergistic effect and can be antagonistic to pentylenetetrazole caused by the convulsions 5. antimicrobial effect.