Rhodomyrtus tomentosa (Ait.) Hassk., also known as Taojinniang or Downy Rose Myrtle, is a plant of the Myrtaceae family, the root or ripe fruit of which can be dried and used as medicines. Their Chinese medicinal names are Gangren and Gangrenzi respectively.
“Taojinniang” was first described as a medicine in A Supplement to the Compendium of Materia Medica. It is recorded in most herbal medicine works of the past, and the medicinal species has remained the same from ancient times to the present day. This species was once stated in Chinese Pharmacopoeia (1977) as the prescribed original plant species of the Chinese medicine Gangren; this species is stated in Criteria of Herbal Drugs in Guangdong Province as the prescribed original plant species of the Chinese medicines Gangren and Gangrenzi. It is mainly produced in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Taiwan, etc., in China.
The root of Taojinniang mainly contains tannins; the fruit mainly contains flavonoid glycosides. Criteria of Herbal Drugs in Guangdong Province use thin-layer chromatography to control the quality of the medicinal materials.
Pharmacological studies indicate that the root and fruit of Taojinniang have the effects of stopping bleeding and anti-bacteria, etc.
According to folk experience, Gangren has the functions of regulating Qi and relieving pain, eliminating dampness and stopping diarrhoea, eliminating blood stasis and stopping bleeding, and tonifying the kidneys and nourishing the blood; Gangrenzi has the functions of nourishing the blood and stopping bleeding, and astringing the bowel and arresting seminal emissions.
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