wolgyehwa
Quick Facts
- What it is: Wolgyehwa is the dried China rose flower (Rosa chinensis), used as a single herb in Korean medicine, mainly for period problems.
- Main uses: Period cramps, Late or missed periods, Light period flow, Skin washes for boils and sores
- Best for: Traditional use around the menstrual cycle
- Active ingredients: Flavonoids, Tannins, Anthocyanins, Quercetin, Gallic acid, Small amount of scented oil
- Forms: Dried flower buds, Tea or decoction, Powder, Part of a herb blend, Cooled tea as a skin wash
- Time to effect: Not known; old use suggests one or two cycles, not a same-day effect.
- Side effects: Mostly mild stomach upset or loose stools; rash or a rare strong allergic reaction in people who react to roses.
Track this remedy in the app
Track wolgyehwa with reminders and record whether it helped, in the app.
What is wolgyehwa?
Wolgyehwa is the dried flower of the China rose. Its plant name is Rosa chinensis. It is used on its own as a single herb in Korean medicine.
Healers gave it for period problems. Common uses were late periods, missed periods, and cramps. It was also put on the skin for boils and sores.
We found no good human trials of it. So this page tells you how it has been used, not what it can do. Long use is not proof that a herb works.
How does wolgyehwa work?
The short answer is that no one knows. No human study shows how it acts in the body.
Old Korean and Chinese texts say it moves the blood. In plain words, they saw it as a herb that frees a stuck flow and eases pain. That is an old way of thinking about the body, not a proven drug action.
Lab tests show the flower holds plant compounds that mop up free radicals (unstable bits that can harm cells). A test in a dish does not tell us what happens in a person.
What forms does wolgyehwa come in?
Most often you will see whole dried flower buds. They are simmered in water to make a tea. Some shops sell the flower as a powder or in tea bags.
Korean and Chinese herbalists also mix it into larger herb blends.
For skin use, the cooled tea is used as a wash or a soak. Rose flower turns up in creams and soaps too, at very low amounts.
Where it comes from:
The China rose comes from China and has been grown there for many hundreds of years. In Chinese texts the flower is called yuejihua. It is listed in the Ming era herb book Bencao Gangmu, from 1596.
Korean doctors took the herb into their own practice, where it is known as wolgyehwa. Its main old use has always been for period problems.
Who should avoid wolgyehwa?
- Do not use if you are pregnant, or if you think you may be pregnant. Korean and Chinese practice bans this herb in pregnancy because it is classed as a blood mover, and it has never been tested for safety in pregnancy.
- Do not use if you are breastfeeding, as no safety information exists.
- Do not use if you are allergic to roses or to rose pollen.
- Do not use if you take a blood thinner such as warfarin, apixaban, rivaroxaban, clopidogrel, or daily aspirin, unless your doctor has said it is safe.
- Do not use if you have a bleeding disorder such as haemophilia (a condition in which blood does not clot properly).
- Do not use in the two weeks before planned surgery, and tell your surgeon what herbs you take.
- Do not use if you have heavy periods, or bleeding between periods, that a doctor has not yet checked.
- Do not give it to children.
- Do not use it in place of treatment your doctor has advised for a period problem, a lump, or a skin infection.
- Never use rose essential oil in place of the flower tea, and never swallow essential oil.
When should you see a doctor?
See a doctor if your periods stop for three months or more, or if a period problem is new or getting worse.
Get care the same day if you bleed heavily enough to soak through a pad every hour, if you have severe belly pain, or if a boil spreads, streaks red, or comes with fever.
Call emergency services if your face, lips, or throat swell, if you come out in hives, or if you struggle to breathe after taking it. That is a serious allergic reaction.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
4.8
