Peonies are called mu dan (牡丹) in the Chinese language and it is one of the most famous flowers in Chinese history. According to the Chinese historical story, the only female Chinese emperor (Wu Tze Tian) was furious towards Peonies because they “refused” to bloom overnight during the winter season. She demanded her servants expel the flowers from her capital.

The flowers were ripped out and sent to a different place. As soon as the peonies arrived there, they blossomed into beautiful flowers. After knowing this, the empress ordered her servants to burn the flowers to death.

Despite burning the flowers to root, the blooming flowers become even more dazzling and to this day peonies are very well-known in China.

Peonies were given their name from the Greek word Paeon. According to Greek mythology, Paeon was the physician to the Greek Gods. He outsmarted his teacher (Asclepius) when he extracted a milky liquid from the root of a peony that cured Lord Pluto.

This caused Asclepius to be angry and jealous of Paeon as Asclepius was the God of medicine and healing. Lord Zeus saved Paeon by turning him into a beautiful flower (peony) when he was threatened to be killed by Asclepius out of jealousy.

Natural products such as flowers usually have a lot of therapeutic value to them and peony is certainly not an exception to that!

Peonies are particularly beneficial to the skin and their antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties are interesting to fight bad tissues and soothes skin rashes.