Chinese name: Labiatae, Dicotyledonous Plants, Golden Subclass; Verbenaceae, Angiospermae, Vitex.

Plant shrub or small tree, 2 ~ 5m high. The roots are yellow and white. The branches are square and densely covered with gray fluff. Palmately compound leaves opposite; 5 leaflets, 3 in the middle, the largest in the middle, ovate-lanceolate, 3- 10 cm long, with 2-5 shallow serrations on the whole or each side, densely covered with gray villi. Panicle terminal; Calyx campanulate, 5-toothed; Corolla lavender or light blue, apex 5-lobed, 2-lipped, with fluff outside; Stamens 4; Ovary 4-loculed, stigma 2-lobed. Nutlets are spherical and black. The flowering period is July-September, and the fruiting period is 9-65438+1October.

Born on hillsides, roadsides and villages. Produced in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan and Guangxi.

Harvest the autumn fruits when they are ripe, rub them by hand, dry them in the sun and clean them up.

The fruit is spherical, with a slightly flat and round upper end and a slightly sharp lower end. The surface is brown and smooth with obvious longitudinal texture. This kind of fruit is thick, hard and not easy to break, and contains several white seeds. It smells fragrant and tastes bitter.

Chemical constituents include 1, 8- cineole, cedrene, pinene, camphene, caryophyllene, diterpenoids, sesquiterpene alcohols and Austrian compounds. It also contains flavonoids and cardiac glycosides.

The taste is warm, pungent and bitter.

Its main functions are dispelling wind and resolving phlegm, promoting qi circulation and relieving pain. Used for colds, coughs, asthma, rheumatism, malaria, stomachache, hernia, hemorrhoids and leakage.