Ji Xiang Teng

Ji Xiang Teng, the chicken-dung vine, is the dried aerial parts of Paederia scandens (Lour.) Merr. (syn. P. foetida auct., Rubiaceae), a slender twining perennial of forest margins across southern China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. The opposite ovate-lanceolate leaves and the entire plant emit a strong fetid sulfurous odor when crushed, owing to methyl mercaptan, which gives the herb its name. Small bell-shaped tubular flowers, white outside and purple within, are borne in axillary or terminal cymes and produce small yellow-brown drupes. In traditional Chinese medicine the vine is sweet, slightly bitter, and neutral, entering the Liver and Spleen channels; it dispels wind-damp, moves qi, relieves pain, transforms phlegm, and counters food stagnation, used for rheumatic pain, epigastric pain, dysentery, jaundice, and traumatic injury.