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Lancea tibetica (spa yag rtsa ba) is a small plant with impressive purple flowers which grows in the high mountains at an elevation up to 5000m. It is distributed in Gansu, Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xizang, and Yunnan of China and Bhutan, India (in the Himalaya), Mongolia and Sikkim. In Ladakh pieces of the roots were roasted and smoked with tobacco because of its exhilarating effect. It is also consumed in milk. It is considered as stimulating. The flowers, leaves and fruit are used in Tibetan medicine, they are said to have a sweet and bitter taste with a cooling potency (also in my experiences the taste of the leaves is very mild and cooling). They are used in the treatment of pulmonary disorders and retention of the menses, whilst the leaves are used for healing wounds. It is also used for treatment of leukaemia, heart disease, influenza, pneumonia and asthma. There were found lignanes and phenylpropanoid glycosides. The lignan glucosides tibeticoside A1 and sylvatesmin exhibited effective antitumor activity on B16 cells. It also contains beta-sitosterol and the enzyme NADH dehydrogenase, as the triterpene acids ursolic acid and oleanolic acid. The lignans sylvatesmin and lantbeside were found as potent antioxidants and lantibeside C and D showed weak cytotoxicity against HL-60 cell lines. The phenylpropanoid glycoside verbascoside was also found, as the lignans lantibeside A, B and C, phillyrin, styraxjaponocide C, (+)-piperitol and horsfieldin. Tibeticone B and C showed anti-oxidation. It likes cool to cold weather, so mine grows best in autumn now: It didn't flower yet, so here is a link to a picture from the plant in its habitat: http://www.youduo.com/forum/leadbbsfile/upload/2006/09/08/123332.jpg