Bu Zha Ye

Microcos paniculata is a medium-sized evergreen tree or large shrub in the Malvaceae (formerly Tiliaceae), native to southern China, the Indian subcontinent and tropical Southeast Asia where it grows in lowland and hill forests and along forest margins. The plant reaches 3 to 12 meters in height, with greyish-brown bark and young branchlets covered in stellate hairs. The alternate leaves are simple, oblong-elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, 8 to 18 cm long, with a finely serrate margin, an acuminate tip and three prominent veins arising from the slightly oblique base. The inflorescence is a large terminal panicle of small, yellowish-white, fragrant, five-parted flowers borne in dense cymose clusters. The fruit is a globose to obovoid drupe, 8 to 12 mm across, turning purplish-black on ripening and containing one to three seeds. In southern Chinese folk medicine and as the dried leaf Bu Zha Ye, it is used to clear summer heat, harmonize the stomach and dispel food stagnation.