Eucommia ulmoides, Tuchung, Du-zhong, Eucommia, Hardy rubber tree, 杜仲
Eucommia ulmoides, Tu chung, Du-zhong, Hardy rubber tree, a monotypic native Chinese tree. The tree is indigenous to the Qinling Mountains near the Gansu-Shaanxi-Sichuan border, extending southward through the mountains of Guizhou to its borders with Yunnan and Guangzi, then east to Jiangxi and Anhui. In the West it is grown as a rare specimen tree. The name du-zhong first appears in Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (1st century), and the bark is listed among the superior class of medicinal plants. In Li Shi-zhen's Ben Cao Gang Mu (1596), the name du-zhong is interpreted as meaning that the plant was named for a Taoist who took the bark and became immortal. He happened to be the second son (zhong) of a family named du, hence the name. Du Zhong has proven to be clinically useful in relieving the symptoms of hypertension, acts as a mild sedative, and has a diuretic action.
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