Pei Lan, “the lan worn on oneself”

Pei Lan reads “the lan worn on oneself”: the name comes from a custom, not from an action. This fragrant plant was worn at the belt or slipped between one’s clothes for its scent, and the poet Qu Yuan wrote of it as early as the 4th century BCE: “I sewed autumn lan to make my belt”. Fragments of its leaves have even been found in a sachet, in a Mawangdui tomb dated to around 168 BCE. The lan of the poets is not an orchid, as it is often translated, but this eupatorium, Eupatorium fortunei, an aromatic perennial whose stems and leaves are used. It is cut twice a year, around midday and in clear weather, when its volatile oils are at their highest.

Transforming Dampness through fragrance

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Pei Lan is pungent, aromatic and above all neutral, and that is the key information: the herbs that transform Dampness through their fragrance are almost all warm, and it is the only one of the first rank not to be. It does not dry Dampness, it transforms it, it passes through it. Linked with the Spleen and Stomach, it answers a very old image: when Dampness weighs on the Spleen, the Spleen falls asleep; fragrance wakes it, it resumes its task of transforming, and the appetite opens. The Su Wen attaches to it a phrase that has remained its definition: “removing the stale Qi”.

A summer herb, without warmth

Through the Lung, which commands the surface, it helps dispel what weighs heavy in hot, humid weather, and its neutrality is then its advantage: it adds no warmth to a season that already has too much. With Asian patchouli, Huo Xiang, it forms the most famous aromatic pair of the Middle: Huo Xiang, slightly warm, opens the surface better, Pei Lan awakens the Spleen better. It should not be confused with Ze Lan, long called by the same name: Pei Lan works through the Qi, Ze Lan through the Blood. It is added at the end of cooking, as its effect lies in its fragrance.