General info
· About 300 species are found worldwide. Its beauty makes it one of the most widely cultivated of flowers, in brilliant huers of red, orange, or purplish-reds, with short-lived but continuing blooms.

Botany
· An erect, much-branched, glabrous shrub, 1 to 4 m high.
· Leaves: glossy green, ovate, acuminate, pointeed, coarsely-toothed, 7 to 12 cm long, alternate, stipulate.
· Flowers: solitary, axillary, very large. Outermost series of bracteoles 6, lanceolate, green, and 8 mm long or less. Calyx green, 2 cm long, lobes ovate. Petals commonly red, obovate, entire, rounded tip, and imbricate. Stamens forming a long staminal tube enclosing the entire style of the pistil and protruding out of the corolla. Ovary 5-celled, styles 5, fused below.
· Fruits: capsules, loculicidally 5-valved, but rarely formed in cultivation

Distribution
Ornamental cultivation throughout the whole country.
Cuttings used for propagation.

Parts utilized
· Flowers, roots, and leaves.
· Harvest the roots and leaves anytime of the year.
· Wash, cut into slices, and sun-dry. The flowers should be collected from May to August, sun-dry.

Characteristics and Pharmacological Effects
· Emollient, emmenagogue, anodyne, expectorant, refrigerant.
· Anti-infectious, antiinflammatory, diuretic, antipyretic.
· Prepared drug has sweet taste, neutral natured.
· The Hibiscus with five petals noted for its medicinal properties, the flowers are considerede astringent. The roots contain a mucilage that is soothing on the mucous membranes of the digestive and respiratory tracts.

Constituents
Hibiscotin.

Uses
Folkloric
· Mumps, infection of the urinary tract: use dried drug materials 15 to 30 gms, boil to decoction and drink.
· For abscesses, carbuncles and boils: crush fresh leaves and poultice the infected area. Also, pound flower buds into a paste and apply to external swellings; also used for boils, cancerous swellings and mumps.
· Decoction of roots, barks, leaves and flowers used as an emollient.
· Decoction from roots of red and white-flowered plants used as an antidote for poison.
· Bark is an emmenagogue; also used to normalize menstruation.
· Seeds used as a stimulant and for cramps.
· Decoction of leaves for fevers.
· For headaches, an infusion of leaves or poultice of leaves.
· Leaves are mildly laxative.
· Mucilage during labor.
· Red flowers are purgative; when taken with papaya seeds, may be abortive.
· Infusion of leaves as an expectorant in bronchitis.
· Hair stimulant: oil made by mixing the juice of fresh petals and olive oil for stimulating hair growth.
Culinary
A tasty tea is brewed from its petals.

Availability
Wild-crafted.
Cultivated for ornamental use.