Madder has been reported to treat soft tissue injury

What is madder(Qian Cao Gen)?
Commercially there are three major madder plants – European Madder (Rubia tinctoria), Asiatic Madder (Rubia argyi), and Indian Madder (Rubia cordifolia). But Rubia cordifolia is much more popular than other Rubia species in dye and medicine industries. For that reason, we are going to focus only on Rubia cordifolia, which also known as Dyer’s madder, Common Madder, Manjistha, Qian Cao, Majith, btsod, Tamaralli, Manditti, Manjista, Manjishta, and so on.

Medicinally it mainly refers to the dried roots and rhizomes of Rubia cordifolia L., which is a member in the coffee family – Rubiaceae. In China it is primarily cultivated in provinces like Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, and Shaanxi. It is usually collected in spring and autumn. After the harvest, remove the stems, dirt, and fibrous roots, wash clean, and finally dry in the sun. For medicinal purpose it needs to be used raw or fried.

Rubia cordifolia is a perennial herbaceous climber, which is from 1 to 2 meters in height. Purple or orange-red root is cylindrical, fleshy, and with red or pink cut surface. After dried, the surface becomes reddish brown or dark brown and purple and the severed surface turns fuchsia. Stems are rough, but young twigs have obvious 4 edges that are with small anatropous spines. Simple leaves are usually in whorls of 4; leaf blade is ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 2 to 9cm long, 1 to 4cm wide, and with acute apex, cordate or rounded base, coarse foliage, and tiny anatropous spines on the dorsal veins and edges; petioles are in different length and with tiny anatropous spines. Bloom time is from August to September. Pale yellow flowers arrange in cymes at the top of branches or leaf axils; calyx teeth are obsolete; corolla tube is very short and 5-lobed; stamens are 5. Fruiting time is from August to October. Fruits are nearly spherical, about 6mm in diameter, red, or from purple to black when ripe. Main habitats include hillslopes, roadside, ditches bands, edge of the rice field, thickets and forest edge.

Madder root benefits
Madder weed can be found easily on the roadside. Thanks to the Alizarin, an organic compound contained in madder root, this plant has what it takes to be an amazing textile dye, which is also called Rose madder because the red color. More than that, it also serves as a coloring agent known as Madder Lake for paint. As one of the most important natural dye materials in ancient China, its history can be dated back to the Zhou Dynasty, more than 2,000 years ago. Then a series of colors, such as dark red, crimson, vermilion, light red, can be made based on the madder color. Unlike the bright red hue from safflower, madder red, called Turkey red in the printing industry terminology, is relatively darker.

Long gone are the days now since the alizarin, an anthracene compound mainly invented as a madder substitute and a dye used in making of red pigments and other dyes, was invented. However, today madder dye still stays active – out there there are many popular madder-based products. For example, the madder root shampoo is an ideal color conditioner to touch up hair color. Compared to its uses as a dye, apparently its medicinal uses are much more important. Besides blood disorders, it has also been reported to treat soft tissue injury, candidiasis, mumps, Chronic Bronchitis, allergic purpura, Leukopenia, hepatitis, and more.