The Health Benefits of Beautyberry

Callicarpa (beautyberry) is a genus of shrubs and small trees in the family Lamiaceae. The leaves are simple, opposite, and 5–25 cm long. The flowers are in clusters, white to pinkish.

 

The fruit is a berry, 2–5 mm diameter and pink to red-purple with a highly distinctive metallic lustre, are very conspicuous in clusters on the bare branches after the leaves fall.

 

The American Beautyberry is native to the southern region of the United States as well as into Mexico and into the West Indies.

 

By looking at the plant, you can tell where this common name “Beautyberry” comes from, from this magnificent show of fruit.

 

The American Beautyberry has somewhat of a coarse texture to it, and it has kind of a somewhat upright habit with a loose structure to it.

 

The leaves are a cure for dropsy. A tea made from the roots is used in the treatment of dysentery and stomach aches. A tea made from the roots and berries is used in the treatment of colic.

Beautyberry
Beautyberry

Traditional Chinese medicine uses the leaves of a related plant to stop bleeding. The inner bark of the plant is used to apply on cuts and wounds.

 

The root of this plant is useful in relieving rashes on the tongue if chewed. The herb is bitter and puckery in flavor, cool in nature, and acts on the liver, lung and stomach channels.

 

To treat hematuria, metrorrhagia and metrostaxis and other kinds of bleeding due to blood-heat, the herb can be used in combination with field thistle, dried rehmannia root, eclipta and other herbs for clearing heat from blood to stop bleeding.

 

Herbs have a variety of uses including culinary, medicinal, and in some cases spiritual usage. General usage of the term “herb” differs between culinary herbs and medicinal herbs.