Family

Iridaceae

Genus

Belamcanda

Common Name

blackberry lily

Plant Figure

Description

Belamcanda chinensis, known as 'Shegan' in Chinese, is a traditional medicinal herb whose rhizome has been used as a traditional medicine for treating coughing, asthma, pharyngitis, and many other throat troubles since the Han Dynasty, 2000 years ago. It was also adopted as one Chinese medicinal herb in the European Pharmacopeia (9th edition). The rhizome of B. chinensis is rich in a variety of phenolic compounds, especially flavonoids and isoflavonoids. These show good pharmacological activities as antioxidants, selective estrogen receptor modulators, and anti-proliferative agents, and have the prospect of preventing fatal diseases such as cancer, atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular diseases, and ischemic stroke.