A perennial herb, with the bulb scaly. Stems unbranched, to 1-2 m, purplish, scabrous, cobwebby-hairy, with bulbils in leaf axils. Leaves alternate, many, broadly linear to lanceolate, 5-18 cm long, 5-15cm wide. Flowers 1-25 in a raceme, nodding, to 12 cm across, orange-red, spotted inside with purple-black; perianth funnelform, segments 6, strongly reflexed, each with a vasal nectar-bearing gland; stamens 6, anthers versatile. Fruit a 3-valved, loculicidal capsule, the margins of valves flat; seeds many, flat, in 2 rows in each cell.

Antiestrogenic, antiinflammatory, diuretic, emmenagogue, emollient and expectorant (bulb); carminative (flowers)

Plants For A Future
WHO/WPRO-Medicinal plants in the Republic of Korea

The bulbs are used to relieve heart diseases, pain in the cardiac region and angina pectoris. They are used in Korea to treat coughs, sore throats, palpitations and boils. The flowers are used to strengthen the eye-lid muscles and are commended in the treatment of myopic astigmatism. A tincture made from the flowering plant, harvested when in full flower, is used in the treatment of uterine neuralgia, congestion, irritation and the nausea of pregnancy. It relieves the bearing-down pain accompanying uterine prolapse and is an important remedy in ovarian neuralgia.

James A Duke and Maryl Fulton. Handbook of Medicinal Herbs - 2nd Edition, P: 733, CRC Press July 2002.