Xiang Ru, the aromatic of the hot season

Xiang Ru joins fragrance, Xiang, to the name of an edible aromatic plant, Ru: it was first a vegetable, which Tao Hongjing listed among the vegetables, noting that wherever it is found, it is eaten raw. For a long time it was also made into a summer infusion. It is a small annual of the mint family, 14 to 30 cm tall, covered in white hairs, with narrow leaves and a very recognisable pungent, fresh scent. The official species of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia is Mosla chinensis, and the reference terroir for its cultivated form is Jiangxi.

Opening the surface in the hot season

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xiang Ru is slightly warm, pungent and aromatic in flavour. The pungent opens and disperses, the aromatic cuts through Dampness: a single quality that works on two levels. Associated with the Lung, which governs the pores, it is traditionally used to release the surface and encourage sweating, and to push out the Cold that has settled there. The tradition reserves it for one precise situation, “Yin-type” summer: in the hot season the pores are open; we cool off in a draught, sleep uncovered, and Cold enters through the surface while humid air and iced drinks weigh on the Middle. Cold outside, Dampness inside: that is what it answers.

Dissolving Dampness, harmonising the Middle

Also associated with the Stomach, its fragrance cuts through the heaviness that dulls the Spleen and Stomach and restores their movement: downward for the Stomach, upward for the Spleen. It also lets water flow, upward and downward. It is often compared with Huo Xiang: both are aromatics for summer Dampness, but Xiang Ru opens the surface far more strongly, whereas Huo Xiang works mainly within. Rich in volatile oils, it is added at the end of a decoction, should not boil for long, and is drunk cooled.