White Aconite, a familiar Chinese herbal medicine, is known as a beauty tool in the plant world. However, due to its toxicity, it must be used with caution. So how do we identify the characteristics of White Aconite?
Image of White Aconite
【Reducing Melanin with White Aconite】
White Aconite has the ability to eliminate facial melanin. Grinding White Aconite into fine powder and applying it with honey on a sticker after washing your face can help relieve facial melanin and has an antioxidant effect.
White Aconite contains saponins, glucosides, and other components, which can help eliminate acne and spots. It is often used in beauty and whitening products, while also having the functions of drying dampness, relieving cough, dispelling wind, stopping spasms, detoxifying, and dispersing masses.
【The Original Form of White Aconite】
White Aconite is a perennial herb with tall plant stature. The underground tuber is similar to yam, oval to elliptical in shape, covered with dark brown scales. The leaves vary from 1 to 7 (depending on the age). The leaf stalk is thick and fleshy, often with light pink or purple streaks, reaching up to 40cm in length.
The leaf blade is triangular-ovate, lanceolate, or broad-elliptic, measuring 10-40cm in length and 7-30cm in width. When young, the leaf curls inward like horns and then unfolds, gradually tapering towards the tip. The flower stalk emerges from the tuber and is green with red patches. The inflorescence bracts are purplish-red, with a cylindrical or elongated-oval tube, gradually tapering and curving at the top, and ovoid in the lobe part, reaching up to 15cm in length. The flesh spike inflorescence is located inside the bract, measuring about 14cm in length.
The female and neutral inflorescences are about 3cm in length, while the male inflorescence is about 2cm in length. The accessory organs are cylindrical, erect, about 6cm in length, purple, and do not protrude from the bract. The male flowers are golden yellow with two anthers, and the anther sacs open at the top. The neutral flowers are pendulous, pale yellow. The female flowers are reddish-brown.
The berries turn red when ripe. The flowering period is from June to August, and the fruiting period is from July to October.
【Identifying the Characteristics of White Aconite】
The tuber of White Aconite is oval or elliptical, measuring 2-5cm in length and 1-3cm in diameter, with residual stem or bud scars at the top.
The surface is white or pale yellow, slightly smooth, with ring patterns and dotted scars. The texture is hard, and the cross-section is powdery white. It has a faint odor and a numbing sensation on the tongue.
The larger, harder, whiter, and more powdery the White Aconite, the better.
