Pinellia ternata (, ), crow-dipper, is a plant that is native to China, Japan, and Korea. However, it also grows as an invasive weed in parts of Europe (Austria, Germany) and in North America (California, Ontario, the northeastern United States).Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant FamiliesBiota of North America Program, 2013 county distribution map The leaves are trifoliate, and the flowers are of the spathe and spadix form that is typical of plants in the family Araceae.Flora of China Vol. 23 Page 42, 半夏 ban xia, Pinellia ternata (Thunberg) Tenore ex Breitenbach, Bot. Zeitung. 37: 687. 1879.
Characteristics The plant spreads by rhizomes, and there are also small bulblets (also known as bulbils) at the base of each leaf. Flowers are borne in spring.
Traditional medicine This plant is toxic in raw form and must be processed.(Bensky et al.)2015. Pinellia ternata is known as the herb effective in removing phlegm-dampness in traditional Chinese medicine.Bensky, et al. 2015. One study found that high doses of Pinellia extract effects thermogenesis and fatty acid oxidation in Zucker rats.
Phytochemicals Pinellia ternata contains a very wide variety of phytochemicals. The alkaloids found in its rhizomes include free nucleosides (guanosine, thymidine, adenine), N-benzylisomethylamine, cycloproline, cyclo(proline-leucine), cyclo(proline-valine), choline, L-ephedrine, inosine, trigonelline, and cytidine.
Ephedrine content A 1996 Chinese article reports that processing method affects ephedrine levels; its native-language abstract reports a ephedrine content of 0.00344% (= 34.4 μg/g). One 2020 Chinese study extracted 5.50 μg/g of ephedrine from tubers through multiphase extraction. One 2021 Japanese study reports no ephedrine found in all 55 samples used (LC-TOF/MS, detection limit 0.5 ppb).
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