Common names: Pi Pa Ye, Names: Loquat, Pa Ye, Pei Pa Yip, Japanese Medlar, Biwayo
Taxonomic name: Eriobotrya japonica
Family: Rosaceae
Related herbs: Roses, Hawthorn, Strawberries
Area of origin: Central and South-East China
Parts used: Leaves
Can be used medicinally for: Coughs, phlegm (especially when coughing up yellow phlegm), nausea, belching, vomiting, dysuria, ulcers, bleeding (especially from anywhere in the respiratory tract). Sores and ulcers in the mouth or on the skin.
Healing Actions: Expectorant, anti-emetic, anti-tussive, anti-tussive, anti-inflammatory, respiratory sedative, gastric sedative, urinary sedative, hemostatic, vulnerary, anti-bacterial, anti-viral
TCM – Directs Qi of Lung downward. Transforms phlegm and stops coughing. Harmonizes the Stomach, clears Stomach Heat and descends Stomach Qi.
Taste: Bitter
Energetics: Cooling, drying, calming, stimulating, relaxing, astringing
Tissue states: Phlegm-heat, Damp-heat
Organ/System affinities: Lung, Stomach, respiratory and digestive systems
Healing constituents: Amygdalin, essential oil (inc. nerolidol, farnesol), tannin, saponin, organic acid, glucose, vitamins B & C
Contraindications and warnings: Not to be used for cough caused by Cold or Lung-Wind Cold.
Not to be used if vomiting is caused by coldness (Stomach Cold).
Rub hairs off leaves – can irritate the throat.
Drug/herb interactions: Hypoglycaemic medications: insulin or oral hypoglycaemics (e.g. metformin, glipizide) may theoretically potentiate hypoglycaemia. Sedative/CNS-depressant drugs: opioid cough suppressants, benzodiazepines, or other respiratory depressants. Anticoagulant/antiplatelet drugs: theoretical from in vitro studies.
Description
Loquat is A tropical evergreen shrub or tree that grows up to 10 metres locally here in sunny Gawler.
The leaves are wrinkled and leathery and dark green, leathery, usually 15-22 cm long, 7-10 cm wide and have strong parallel veins. They’re dark green above, lighter green with rusty brown down beneath.
Flowers grow in terminal panicles that form in Summer. They’re fragrant, whitish, 5-petaled and 1-2 cm across.
The delicious fruit is a pome, that is fleshy, and yellow-orange. It’s 2 -5 cm long, pear-shaped or oblong and contains a large seed.
Medicinal use
Think of Loquat leaves when anything is coming up. Whether it’s coughing and phlegm from your respiratory tract or gas or worse from your stomach, Loquat can cool it and send its energy downward. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this remedy is said to direct qi of the Lungs and Stomach downward, so can help with nausea, vomiting, belching, coughing up phlegm. In Western Herbalism, bitter herbs are used to cool and send energy downward, so the two perspectives match up perfectly with this herb.
Loquat leaves also help with blood, having a hemostatic quality that makes them a pretty good all-round healer for bleeding, whether it’s in the respiratory or digestive system, especially if it’s coughed or brought up.
Being cooling, it’s also useful in inflammations, especially in the respiratory tract. One of its key indications is coughing up of yellow phlegm (a sign of heat and possible infection). I recommend it for use when a cold has stayed around and turned nasty and you’ve moved from the cold and chills stage to the dry, fever stage.
Preparing and using Loquat Leaves
Loquat leaves can be tinctured but from what I have experienced and heard, an infusion works better and, being tough, a decoction is even more effective at drawing out the good bits. The leaves are big so you won’t need many for an infusion and being cooling, I prefer to use them fresh. Because of the nature of the ailments Loquat leaves work with, you’d probably want to make a litre or more at a time and drink it frequently. It is a diuretic though and will make you wee but that’s a good thing! You want it for hot conditions, so keep it in the fridge between glasses.
Other herb pages on Ligaya Garden
We cover a lot of ground on many herb related topics here on our website. There are whole pages devoted to different topics as well as frequent posts. Some of the links are –
