Fengyan fruit, a Chinese medicinal material, is the seed of Sterculia platanifolia, a plant of the Malvaceae family. It is distributed in Fujian, Taiwan, Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi, Yunnan, and other regions. Fengyan fruit is mainly used for promoting digestion and resolving toxins. It is often used to treat vomiting and indigestion, abdominal pain caused by intestinal worms, hernia pain, and childhood scalp ulcers.
【Name of Medicinal Material】
Fengyan fruit
Pinyin Fènɡ Yǎn Guǒ
English Name Seed of Common Sterculia
【Alias of Fengyan Fruit】
Luohuangzi, Pingpo fruit, Jiucengpi, Pan'an fruit, Qijie fruit, Fuguizi, Jia Jiucengpi, Hongpi fruit.
【Original Morphology of Fengyan Fruit】
Fengyan fruit is a tall tree that can grow up to 10m. The bark is blackish-brown, and the small branches are slightly covered with star-shaped hairs. The leaves are alternate; the leaf stalk is 2-3.5cm long; the leaf blade is thin and leathery, elliptical or ovate, 8-25cm long, 5-15cm wide, with a pointed or blunt apex, and a rounded or blunt base, with no hairs on both surfaces.
The cone-shaped inflorescence is terminal or axillary, spreading, up to 20cm long, with short soft hairs; the flowers are unisexual, without corolla; the calyx is pale red, bell-shaped, covered with short soft hairs on the outside, 5-lobed, lobes lanceolate in shape, gradually pointed and inwardly curved, sticking together at the apex, as long as the bell-shaped calyx tube.
There are more male flowers, and the stalks of the stamens are curved, hairless, and the anthers are yellow; there are fewer female flowers, slightly larger, the ovary is spherical with 5 grooves, densely covered with hairs, and the stigma is curved with 5 shallow divisions. The fruit is fresh red, thick and leathery, oblong in shape, about 5cm long, 2-3cm wide, with a beak at the apex, and each fruit contains 1-4 seeds. The seeds are elliptical or oblong, blackish-brown, with a diameter of about 1.5cm.
The flowering period is from April to May, but a few plants can have a second flowering period in October to November.
