Witnessed by: TCM
Chinese white pear (Pyrus bretschneideri), of the Rosaceae family. Deciduous rose-family tree, white-flowered in spring, bearing a rounded pale-yellow russet-flecked pome; native range: Northern China — Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi and Shaanxi; the chief cultivated pear of the north. Globally recognized as bai li (白梨, the tree), li pi (梨皮, the peel), li (梨) in Chinese, and Chinese white pear, ya pear in English. The part used is the peel (li pi); also the flesh and the pressed juice. A thin pale-yellow skin flecked with russet dots, faintly astringent and sweetish; the flesh beneath white, crisp, sweet and running with cool juice.
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.
CHINESE WHITE PEAR
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- Chinese white pear
- Scientific name
- Pyrus bretschneideri Rehder
- Family
- Rosaceae
Form
- Part used
- the peel (li pi); also the flesh and the pressed juice
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- sweet · astringent (the peel, faintly)
Temperature
- TCM
- cool
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Lung · Stomach · Heart
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- clears heat and generates fluids, moistens dryness of the Lung, transforms phlegm and stops cough, and quenches thirst
Cautions
- Contraindications
- cold, weak digestion with loose stool, cold cough with clear watery phlegm, and postpartum cold — the pear is cool and moistening
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