| |  | | Healing Properties of Chrysanthemums
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: Birdie
Posted on: March 24, 2007
What healing properties would chrysanthemums have? I have had allergies, respiratory and coughing problems all winter as well as an arthritis flair up. I have used camomile but recently found chrysanthemums in bulk form and wondered what the benefits were?
Chrysanthemum does indeed have medicinal effects. In Chinese traditional medicine, several different species are used. The most commonly used one is Chrysanthemum morifolium, the species from which decorative potted mums so widely grown in the West are derived. This herb is known as "ju hua" and its flowers help to increase blood flow by increasing coronary vasodilation. It also has antibacterial and antipyretic (temperature lowering) properties. In southern China chrysanthemum tea is very popular during the summer, probably because of its cooling effect. It is also widely taken form the common cold, headache, dizziness, red eye, swelling, angina pectoris and hypertension, according Kee Chang Huang, author of The Pharmacognosy of Chinese Herbs (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida; 1999).
Other species of Chrysanthemum have similar properties. The flowers of Chrysanthemum indicum, C. boreale, and C. lavandulaefolium are known as "yao jiu hua". They have antihypertensive properties also, but the method of preparation is a little diffierent: the medicine is prepared with alcohol, not water as in the case of C. morifolium. Tablets made with these herbs are typically taken for hypertensive symptoms such as headache, insomnia and dizziness. And the herb is widely used for the common cold, like C. morifolium is, and is used for flu and meningitis.
I could not find any information that chrysanthemum has any useful specific effects on the conditions you describe, except perhaps for symptoms that may be associated with a cold or flu.
| | |
|
