Shi Lian Zi

Shi Lian Zi (石莲子), literally "stone lotus seed," is most often equated in classical Chinese materia medica with hardened, fully matured, naturally fallen lotus seeds of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. that have dried in their receptacles and become stone-hard with a black-brown pericarp — a more astringent form distinct from ordinary Lian Zi. However, in some regional sources the name is also applied to the seeds of Caesalpinia minax Hance (Fabaceae), a tropical liana, which differ markedly in origin and action. Without a corroborating Latin name on the source record, definitive assignment is not possible and the entry follows the unidentifiable null-pattern; reviewers should resolve the ambiguity against the originating reference before clinical use.