''Corydalis yanhusuo'' is a plant species in the genus ''

Corydalis ''Corydalis'' (from Greek ''korydalís'' "crested lark") is a genus of about 470 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants in the family Papaveraceae, native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere and the high mountains of tropical eastern ...

''. The

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

name for ''Corydalis yanhusuo'' is ''yan hu suo'' (). The Japanese common name is engosaku (エンゴサク) and the Korean common name is hyeonhosaek (현호색). English common names include yanhusuo, corydalis, and Asian corydalis. The tuber of this plant, frequently mislabeled as the root, is an important therapeutic agent in

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

. It is native to high-altitude grasslands across China including in the provinces of

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

, and

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

, but is more widely cultivated.

Description

According to the Flora of China, this perennial herbaceous plant produces 5 to 15 purple-blue tubular flowers in clusters that curve out at the opening. The yellow, round tubers are up to in diameter.

History

Yanhusuo is first mentioned in ''Ben Cao Shi Yi'' (''Omissions from the Materia Medica''), written by Chen Cang-Qi in 720 CE.

Chemical compounds

The

alkaloid Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...

dehydrocorybulbine (DHCB) can be extracted from the roots of the plant.A Novel Analgesic Isolated from a Traditional Chinese Medicine. ''Current Biology''. Volume 24, Issue 2, p117–123, 20 January 2014
/ref>

Tetrahydropalmatine Tetrahydropalmatine (THP) is an isoquinoline alkaloid found in several different plant species, mainly in the genus '' Corydalis'' ( Yan Hu Suo), but also in other plants such as '' Stephania rotunda''. These plants have traditional uses in Chi ...

is another major constituent alkaloid. ''Corydalis yanhusuo'' also contains the alkaloids

glaucine Glaucine is an aporphine alkaloid found in several different plant species in the family Papaveraceae such as ''Glaucium flavum'', '' Glaucium oxylobum'' and '' Corydalis yanhusuo'', and in other plants like ''Croton lechleri'' in the family Euph ...

and

palmatine Palmatine is a protoberberine alkaloid found in several plants including ''Phellodendron amurense'', ''Coptis Chinensis'' (Rhizoma coptidis, chinese goldthread) and '' Corydalis yanhusuo'', ''Tinospora cordifolia'' (gurjo, heart-leaved moonseed), ...

. It also contains the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor corydaline. ''N''-Methyltetrahydroprotoberberines have been isolated from ''C. yanhusuo''.

References

yanhusuo Plants described in 1985 Plants used in traditional Chinese medicine Medicinal plants of Asia {{Ranunculales-stub