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What varieties and types of Asarum are there? A detailed guide in one article

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Commercial Asarum is mostly divided into two types: Liaoxixin (northeastern Asarum) and Huaxixin (Chinese Asarum). Liaoxixin refers to Asarum heterotropoides var. mandshuricum and Asarum sieboldii var. seoulense produced in Northeast China. The two are similar in characteristics, but there are distinctions between wild and cultivated products. Wild Liaoxixin is usually gathered in small bundles of a dozen or so plants, often rolled into clumps. The rhizome is irregularly cylindrical, 1-10 cm long, with short branches, grayish-brown on the surface, rough with ring-shaped nodes, and the internode spacing is about 2-3 mm. The branch tips have bowl-shaped stem scars. The roots are slender, densely growing on the nodes, about 1 mm in diameter and 10-20 cm long, grayish-yellow on the surface, smooth or with fine longitudinal

Commercial Asarum is mostly divided into two types: Liaoxixin (northeastern Asarum) and Huaxixin (Chinese Asarum). Liaoxixin refers to Asarum heterotropoides var. mandshuricum and Asarum sieboldii var. seoulense produced in Northeast China. The two are similar in characteristics, but there are distinctions between wild and cultivated products.

Wild Liaoxixin is usually gathered in small bundles of a dozen or so plants, often rolled into clumps. The rhizome is irregularly cylindrical, 1-10 cm long, with short branches, grayish-brown on the surface, rough with ring-shaped nodes, and the internode spacing is about 2-3 mm. The branch tips have bowl-shaped stem scars. The roots are slender, densely growing on the nodes, about 1 mm in diameter and 10-20 cm long, grayish-yellow on the surface, smooth or with fine longitudinal wrinkles. The texture is brittle and breaks easily, and the broken surface is yellowish-white. The rhizome bears 1-3 leaves; the leaves have long petioles with longitudinal stripes, and the leaf blades are mostly broken. Intact leaf blades are heart-shaped to kidney-shaped-heart-shaped, 4-10 cm long and 6-12 cm wide, with entire margins, short acute or obtuse tips, and deeply heart-shaped bases. The surface is pale green, and flowers or fruits are sometimes visible. The flowers are mostly shrunken, dark purple, bell-shaped, and the capsules are hemispherical. The odor is pungent and aromatic, and the taste is pungent and numbing to the tongue.

The rhizome of cultivated Liaoxixin is mostly branched, 5-15 cm long and 0.2-0.6 cm in diameter. The fibrous roots are 15-40 cm long and 0.1-0.2 cm in diameter (thicker than wild products, commonly called "mao cu"). There are very many leaves. The odor and taste are slightly weaker than those of wild products.

Huaxixin is similar in appearance to Beixixin (northern Asarum), except that its rhizome is longer than that of Beixixin, 5-20 cm long and 0.1-0.2 cm in diameter, with internodes about 1-10 mm; it has 1-2 basal leaves, and the leaf blades are heart-shaped with acuminate tips. The texture is thin and easily broken. The fruit is nearly spherical. Both the aroma and the pungent taste are weaker than those of Beixixin.

Asarum sieboldii var. seoulense is similar to Beixixin, except that its internodes are 0.1-1 cm long, it usually has 2 basal leaves, the petioles are hairy, and the leaf blades are thicker.

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