Jin Ying Zi

English Name: rosa laevigata, golden tassel seed, cherokee rose fruit

Literal Translation: “golden cherry seed”

Pharmaceutical Name: Fructus Rosae Laevigatae

Medica Category: Astringent Herbs

Properties: Jin Ying Zi enters the Urinary Bladder and Large Intestine channels; it is sour and astringent in nature and neutral in temperature.

What is Jin Ying Zi?:

The Chinese Herb Jin Ying Zi is the dried hips of a plant commonly known in the U.S. as the Cherokee rose (Rosa laevigata Michx.). It is a climbing rose native to fields, thickets, farms, and low-elevation mountain areas in Guangdong, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces in China and is now naturalized throughout the Southeastern United States. It blooms in the spring with fragrant white flowers that give way to large, bristly, orange-red hips in the summer. These rose hips are harvested in the fall; the thorns and core are removed, and then they are sun-dried for use as medicine.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Therapeutic Actions of Jin Ying Zi:

Jin Ying Zi consolidates jing (essence) and restrains urine. It is used in cases of Kidney deficiency to address various presentations involving the leakage of body fluids such as: urinary incontinence, frequent urination, enuresis, polyuria (w/ clear or turbid urine), spermatorrhea, and unremitting leukorrhea. It also binds the intestines to address chronic diarrhea and dysentery.

–safety/clinical notes:

Contraindicated for excess fire conditions (i.e. damp-heat diarrhea, burning dysuria) of exterior disorders.

Potential side effects include constipation, abdominal pain, abdominal fullness, and cough.