Chinese Rose Flower

Traditional Use

Primary Actions

• Invigorates blood and regulates menstruation - Yue Ji Hua is used for dysmenorrhea, scanty menses, amenorrhea, and menstrual irregularity when constrained blood and Qi lead to fixed lower-abdominal pain or difficult flow.
• Reduces swelling and resolves toxicity - beyond gynecology, the flower is traditionally applied for boils, breast-area swelling, scrofula, and early hot suppurative lesions where blood stasis has transformed into heat and swelling.
• Moves Qi within blood-stasis patterns - classical comparison with Mei Gui Hua emphasizes that Yue Ji Hua works more strongly on the blood aspect of stagnation, especially when pain, clots, or traumatic bruising predominate.
• Relieves pain and swelling from traumatic injury - regional use includes bruises, fixed injury pain, and superficial inflammatory swellings treated internally or as a topical preparation.

Secondary Actions

• Yue Ji Hua is often used as the more blood-moving counterpart to Mei Gui Hua: the latter better soothes Liver Qi and harmonizes the middle, while Yue Ji Hua is selected when stasis and swelling are the stronger features.
• Because it is both warm and blood-moving, the flower is typically used for deficient-cold menstruation only when there is a clear stasis component rather than for purely weak, pale, depleted cycles.

Classic Formulas

• Yue Ji Hua with Dang Gui and Dan Shen - classical blood-moving wine or decoction logic for scanty menstruation, amenorrhea, and lower-abdominal stasis pain.
• Yue Ji Hua with Xia Ku Cao, Zhe Bei Mu, and Mu Li - pairing logic preserved in materia medica for neck swellings and scrofula where stasis, phlegm, and heat intertwine.
• Topical Yue Ji Hua poultice - traditional external use for boils, swellings, breast abscess, and early toxic lesions when the goal is to reduce swelling while moving constrained blood.

Classical References

• TCM Wiki describes Yue Ji Hua as sweet and warm, entering the Liver and Kidney channels, with actions of activating blood, regulating menstruation, resolving swelling, and removing toxicity for traumatic injury, sores, boils, dysmenorrhea, and abnormal menstruation.
• American Dragon likewise lists the flower under blood-invigorating herbs and stresses its distinction from Mei Gui Hua: Yue Ji Hua works more strongly on blood stasis, while Mei Gui Hua is more Qi-regulating.
• A traditional herb compendium summary quoted by Birt and Tang attributes to Yue Ji Hua the ability to invigorate blood circulation, relieve swellings, and draw out toxins externally, reinforcing that its skin and abscess uses are not just modern additions.