Dianthus has a strong inhibitory effect on isolated frog heart

What is dianthus(Qu Mai)?
It is noteworthy to note that Dianthus refers not to a single plant but a genus in the family Caryophyllaceae, in which there are approximate 300 species distributed in Asia, Europe, Africa, and arctic North America. And the most commonly seen Dianthus varieties are Dianthus caryophyllus (carnation), D. barbatus (sweet william), D. plumarius (pink), and so on. However, in traditional Chinese medicine Qu Mai, also known as Herba Dianthi in Latin name, mainly refers to the dried aerial part of D. superbus and D. chinensis. In China it is mainly produced in Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, and Jiangsu. It is usually harvested in summer and autumn during flowering and fruiting time. After that, it needs to remove impurities, dry them in the sun, and cut them into sections. It is generally used raw medicinally.

D. superbus seems delicate but actually it is a hardy plant. It can be found at the hillside, meadow, forest edge, woodland or sub-alpine meadows and other environments. And it is also one of common garden plants. As a perennial herb, it is up to 1 meter in height. Tufted stems are erect, glabrous, and with 2 branches in upper part and obvious node. Alternate Dianthus leaves are linear or linear-lanceolate, 1.5 to 9cm long, 1 to 4mm wide, and with acuminate apex, base into a short-sheath base, entire margin, and glabrous sides. Flower is solitary or a few of them gather into panicle; tubular calyx is 2.7 to 3.7cm long; bracts are 4 to 6, broadly ovate, and about 1/4 of the calyx tube length; deeply cut fringed petals are brown purple or brown, and curly. Long cylindrical capsule is as long as the persistent calyx. Dianthus seeds are small and many. And it is odorless and tasteless. Bloom time is from August to September and fruiting is from of September to November.

Dianthus health benefits
To be specific, the medicinal uses of Dianthus mainly include the following:

(1) Diuretic effects. Its decoction has obvious diuretic effect to rabbits, anesthetized dogs, and dogs without anesthesia. It has greater impact on potassium excretion than sodium excretion. It contains 500mg/100ml, which is believed to be relevant to diuresis and the high potassium levels;

(2) Cardiovascular effects. It has a strong inhibitory effect on isolated frog heart and rabbit heart. And its decoction of the ears has hypotensive effect in anesthetized dogs, which is believed to be caused by cardiac depression;

(3) Intestinal effects. Experiments show that its decoction has obvious excitatory effect on animal intestine. It could lead to rising intestinal tension in isolated rabbit intestine. And it could still increase the intestinal motility of anesthetized dogs and dogs with chronic intestinal fistula but it has no significant effect on the tension. And diphenhydramine and papaverine can antagonize this effect;

(4) Uterus effects. Its ethanol extracts have obvious excitatory effect on anesthetized rabbit’s uterus and the isolated y uterine muscle of the rat. It can result in obvious uterine contractions, increased frequency, and enhanced tension in anesthetized rabbit’s uterus. The role of exciting uterine muscle strengthens with the increasing dose, which represents as increasing frequency, more lasting rhythmic contraction, and tonic contraction in few uterine muscles. And the combination with prostaglandin E2 can produce synergies, which account for 70%;