Chinese Peony (aka. White Peony; Paeonia lactiflora) is a herbaceous perennial with large, showy, often fragrant flowers and lobed, dark green leaves.
Native to China and widely cultivated across East Asia, it has been used in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese traditional medicine and also grown for cut flowers and as a garden ornamental.
It produces substantial underground roots that are harvested, dried, and sliced as a major crude drug in East Asian medicine.
In traditional medicine, the peeled root (bai shao) is used to nourish Liver blood and yin, relieve cramping pain, regulate menstruation, and calm irritability, dizziness, and insomnia related to Liver yang rising. Decoctions of the dried root are prescribed for dysmenorrhea, muscle spasms, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, hepatitis, and fever, usually in combination formulas.
➡️ In modern practice it is also used in formulas for menopausal symptoms, hypertension, depression, anxiety and a range of inflammatory autoimmune conditions. Different processed root forms (white peony or Bai Shao, red peony or Chi Shao) are distinguished in materia medica for distinct energetic indications.
Through scientific investigation, White Peony has been found to have antinociceptive, anti‑inflammatory, antispasmodic, analgesic, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, antiapoptotic, antidiabetic, anti‑aging, cardiovascular protective, neuroprotective, antipyretic, and potential antibacterial and antitumor effects.
One interesting study used a network pharmacology approach to show that the TCM herb pair Gui Zhi–Shao Yao (Cinnamomum cassia & Paeonia lactiflora) may treat chronic pain with co‑occurring anxiety and depression through 15 active compounds acting on 130 targets, with nine core proteins (including Akt1, IL6, TNF, PTGS2, and PPARγ) and 11 key inflammatory and stress-related pathways (such as AGE‑RAGE, IL‑17, and TNF signaling), suggesting a multi-target, systems-level mechanism that still needs confirmation in experimental models.
Another preclinical study showed that Chinese Peony, given orally before nitroglycerin, reduced migraine‑like behaviors, including decreased exploratory activity, locomotion, and light avoidance. The extract also lowered c‑fos and CGRP expression in the trigeminal nucleus caudalis, suggesting its antimigraine effect may involve dampening trigeminal activation and neuropeptide signaling.