Costus, Mu Xiang 木香 Mu Xiang (‘Wood Fragrance’) (TCM)Kuth, Kushta (Ayurveda)Koddam (Siddha)Qust, Qust Shirin, Kuth (Unani)Ru Rta  རུ་རྟ  (Tibetan) Sweet and Bitter varieties of Costus(This is not Saussurea lappa)Herbarium Blackwellianum, 1757 Arabian CostusA Complete History of Drugs, Pomet, London, 1748PseudocostusKreutterbuch, Matthiolus, 1586 Saussurea costus(Photo by Dinesh Valke) (Wikimedia) Herbarium, showing various Costus types, A. Bitter Costus;B. Sweet Costus; C and D, Another Costus; E. Costus iridem;F. Costus stem / root crown; G. Arabian Costus(Kreutterbuch, Matthiolus, 1586) Aromaticum et Simplicium Aliquot, de Orta, 1579Vladimiria souliei (Chuan Mu Xiang) (Adam, 2016)S. lappa from Yunnan (Yun Mu Xiang) (Adam, 2016)Costus root used in Tibetan Medicine (Zang Mu Xiang) (Adam, 2016) Botanical name: Saussurea lappa (syn. S. costus, Aucklandia lappa, Dolomiaea costus) (Official)Sources for Costus (Mu Xiang) are varied and complex; alternate species used in TCM include: Inula helenium, I. racemosa (Tu Mu Xiang; used in India) Jurinea souliei (Chuan Mu Xiang; used in Sichuan, China) Dolomiaea soulei (syn. Vladimiria souliei), D. denticulata, D. berardioidea, D. platylepsis, D. edulis (Chuan Mu Xiang) Aristolchia debilis, A. contorta (Ching Mu Xiang); no longer used due to its toxicity. Arabian, Bitter and Sweet varieties were traditionally known in the West, but only the Arabian (S. lappa) was commonly…

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