Mu Dan Pi – Tree Peony Root Bark – Cortex Moutan

Mu Dan Pi

English Name: moutan, tree peony root bark

Pharmaceutical Name: Cortex Moutan

Medica Category: Heat-Clearing and Blood-Cooling Herbs

Properties: Mu Dan Pi enters the Heart, Liver, and Kidney channels; it is bitter and acrid in nature and cool in temperature.

What is Mu Dan Pi?:

The Chinese Herb Mu Dan Pi is the dried inner root bark of the tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa), a deciduous, woody shrub native to China and Tibet that grows from 3’ – 5’ high.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Therapeutic Actions of Mu Dan Pi:

Mu Dan Pi clears heat and cools the blood to address yin deficiency with heat signs (i.e. symptoms indicative of menopause): “steaming bones”, nighttime fevers, absence of perspiration, and thirst.

Mu Dan Pi addresses heat in the chong and ren channels that is driving the blood out of these channels to cause various manifestations of dysmenorrhea.

Mu Dan Pi invigorates blood and disperses blood stagnation to address amenorrhea and (uterine) fibroids and other masses (usually with accompanying pain when the area is palpated).