Angelica gigas is a monocarpic biennial or short lived perennial plant from China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

. It inhabits forests, grasslands and banks of streams. The roots are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Recent research in 2007 has isolated a chemical from the root of the plant, a coumarin

Coumarin

Coumarin is a fragrant chemical compound in the benzopyrone chemical class, found in many plants, notably in high concentration in the tonka bean , vanilla grass , sweet woodruff , mullein , sweet grass , cassia cinnamon and sweet clover...

 compound "decursin", that has anti-androgenic properties.

Description

Angelica gigas is a a stout plant that is 1 to 2 meters high with deep thick roots and purplish ribbed stem. Its leaf blades have a triangular-ovate outline. It has a 20–40 × 20–30 cm, 2–3-ternate-pinnate

Pinnate

Pinnate is a term used to describe feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis in plant or animal structures, and comes from the Latin word pinna meaning "feather", "wing", or "fin". A similar term is pectinate, which refers to a comb-like arrangement of parts...

 arrangement. The plant's purple umbel

Umbel

An umbel is an inflorescence which consists of a number of short flower stalks which are equal in length and spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs....

 measures 5–8 cm across. Its dark purple-red obovate flowers blooms in late summer.

Cultivation

For moist garden soil in full sun or semishade. The plant is best propagated through seeds in the spring. The plant is a perennial plant that flowers in the months of July to August.

External links

• Flora of China: Angelica gigas http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200015368

• http://mobot.mobot.org/cgi-bin/search_pick?name=Angelica+gigas