When growing naturally, it is a medium-sized tree, with spreading branches of quick growth and not long-lived. The leaves are lance-shaped, about 4 inches long and 1 1/2 inch broad, tapering to a sharp point, borne on long, slender, relatively unbranched shoots, and with the flowers arranged singly, or in groups of two or more at intervals along the shoots of the previous year's growth. The blossoms come out before the leaves are fully expanded, and are of a delicate, pink colour. They have a hollow tube at the base, bearing at its free edge five sepals, and an equal number of petals, usually concave, and a great number of stamens. They have very little odour. The fruit is a drupe, like the plum, having a delicate, thin outer downy skin enclosing the flesh of the Peach, the inner layers becoming woody to form the large, furrowed, rugged stone, while the ovule ripens into the kernel or seed.

Demulcent, sedative, diuretic and expectorant action (leaves, bark, flowers and kernels); vermicidal and insecticidal (leaf); diuretic, sedative and vermifuge (flowers); alterative, astringent, demulcent and sedative (gum from the stems); antiasthmatic, antitussive, emollient, haemolytic, laxative and sedative (seeds); demulcent, diuretic, expectorant and sedative (bark).

Prunus persica
Plants for a Future
King's American Dispensatory

Kaempferol-3-rhamnoside, multiflorins A and B, quercitrin and chlorogenic acid (flower); caffeic acid, kaempferol, hentriacontanol, hentriacontane, ursolic acid and beta-sitosterol (leaf); ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, (fruit); ferulic acid, naringenin, quercetin, (plant)

On cattle sores (for killing maggots) (fresh leaf paste); used in whooping cough, ordinary coughs and chronic bronchitis and irritation and congestion of gastritis (plant); possess the power of expelling worms, if applied outwardly to the body as a poultice, to relieve vomiting and morning sickness during pregnancy, in the treatment of constipation and oedema (fresh leaves); used in the treatment of dropsy and jaundice (root bark).

Chandel et al., Biodiversity in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in India.