Arrowleaf abelmoschus

Sâm bố chính (Abelmoschus sagittifolius), also called sâm báo or Phú Yên ginseng in Vietnamese, is a perennial herb of the mallow family (Malvaceae). The plant is 40–100 cm tall with a white radish-like tuberous root, the main part used as a tonic medicine. The leaves are variable: lower leaves ovate, upper ones arrow-shaped or 3–5-lobed, serrated and hairy. Flowers are solitary in the leaf axils, red or yellow, 4–5 cm across, with stamens fused into a column. The ovoid capsule is about 3 cm long, bristly and shortly beaked, with kidney-shaped seeds. The species grows in dry, open places and is distributed across Indochina, India, southern China, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia. In Vietnam it is widely grown in Phú Yên, Quảng Bình and Quảng Nam for its root. Kew treats the name as a synonym of Abelmoschus rhodopetalus.

The root tuber of sâm bố chính is a familiar tonic in Vietnamese folk medicine: fresh or dried roots are decocted, steeped in liquor, stewed with chicken or duck, or cooked in porridge to strengthen the body, build qi, nourish the blood and fight fatigue. The best-known specialities are Phú Yên sâm bố chính porridge and chicken stew. In traditional Chinese medicine the root is also used for stomach ache, diarrhoea and neurasthenia; pounded leaf and root are applied to ease swelling and to splint fractures. Recent studies report antioxidant and liver-protective activity of root extracts; packaged tea, capsules and herbal material are now on the market. The plant prefers dry, well-drained soils and is propagated by seed or by dividing the tuber.