Chinese motherwort, the herb that benefits mothers
Yi Mu Cao reads “the herb that benefits mothers”. The name is so old that the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing already gives it as the plant’s second name; it is also called Kun Cao, after the trigram that in the Yijing stands for Earth and the feminine. This is Chinese motherwort, Leonurus japonicus, a square-stemmed herb of the mint family, whose leaves change shape all along the stem; the aerial parts are used, harvested young, in summer. It grows in almost every Chinese province, and in Guangdong the young shoots are eaten as a vegetable. It is not the common motherwort of European herbal shops, which is another plant.
Moving the Blood of the lower abdomen
In traditional Chinese medicine, motherwort is slightly cool, pungent and bitter in taste: the pungent taste loosens what stagnates, the bitter one pushes it downward. It enters the Liver and the Heart, which tradition says govern the Blood, and the Bladder, through which water descends. Its primary action is to move the Blood and harmonise the cycle, and tradition made it the reference herb when Blood stagnates in the lower abdomen; its light coolness lets it act when stagnation comes with Heat. It is also one of the few herbs to move water and mobilise the Blood in a single gesture.
A herb that moves, not a tonic
A text from 1624 called it “the holy herb of the house of Blood”. Yet tradition corrected itself: a Ming physician warned not to expect it to tonify, and that its name does not make it the herb for every woman. It is not a Blood tonic, but a herb that clears out. This is why tradition pairs it with Chinese angelica, which nourishes the Blood: the old Blood circulates without the reserves running dry.
Key benefits
Feminine balance & lower-abdomen Blood
Traditionally used when Blood stagnates in the lower abdomen, motherwort promotes feminine balance.
Blood in motion & stasis dispersed
Pungent and bitter, it supports Blood circulation and loosens what no longer flows.
Urinary comfort & water descending
Through the Bladder, its bitterness leads water downward and helps urinary comfort.
