| Family Name | Hamamelidaceae |
| Scientific name | Liquidambar formosana hance (Tree), Fructus Liquidambaris (Fruit) |
| Common name | Chinese Sweet Gum (Tree), Beautiful Sweetgum Fruit (Fruit) |
| Growth habit | Large Deciduous tree. |
| Leaf | Leaves are trifid, the side of leaf has serrulate, the tip acuminate it wide around 15cm. Due to the temperature difference is large in autumn, the leaf become red and purple colour. |
| Flower | Staminate flowers arranged as an inflorescence, apetalous, pistillate flowers are round-shaped. |
| Fruit | A kind of multiple fruit made up by many small capsule, spherical shape, diameter around 2-3cm. The colour of surface are grayish brown or brown, contain spikes and beak-shaped small blunt spines, around 0.5-1mm, often broken, the top of the small capsule have little holes. Light, hard and difficult to break. |
| More to learn | Pregnant women mustn’t take in. Inject Lu Lu Tong solution to patients can treat Cerebral Infarction. Can apply on external use: sniff the fume given out. Leaves can use in detoxify and stop bleeding. Extract of the resin can promote blood circulation. |
| Properties | Bitter ; Neutral in temperature ; Astringent |
| Treats | 1)Treats skin disease, nasal allergies, stomach pain, ulcer, anal fistula, and scabies, lumbago 2)Promotes the movement of air in body (Qi) and invigorates the blood. 3)Diuretic for edema. 4)Antirheumatic for arthralgia. 5)Emmenagogue for amenorrhea. |
| Reference | A+醫學百科 American Dragon Information on individual herbs 中醫世家 香港浸會大學中醫藥學院藥用植物圖像數據庫 |