Witnessed by: Unani

Himalayan peony (Paeonia emodi), of the Paeoniaceae family. Herbaceous perennial with divided leaves and large white nodding flowers of many stamens, rising from thickened tuberous roots; native range: the western Himalaya, from Afghanistan and Kashmir to Nepal, in shaded forest and on moist slopes at 1500–3000 m. Globally recognized as ood-us-saleeb · fawaniya in Arabic, ood-e-saleeb · ood gharqi in Persian, ood-e-saleeb · ood salib in Urdu, chandra · mamekh in Hindi, and Himalayan peony in English. The part used is the root (the tuber). Small, hard, dark brown to blackish tubers, spindle-shaped and wrinkled, cut across into beads for stringing; the smell faint and earthy, the taste bitterish and astringent.

In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.

This is the card. Sign in for the full four-tradition entry — the aligned TCM · Ayurveda · Western · Unani reading, actions, dosing and cautions.