Carthamus tinctorius གུར་གུམ་

English name: Safflower

Tibetan name: Gur-kum (གུར་གུམ་)

Part used: flower (མེ་ཏོག)

Taste and potency: sweet and slightly bitter taste (རོ་མངར་ཞིང་ཅུང་ཟད་ཁ་བ་); sweet post-digestive taste (ཞུ་རྗེས་མངར་བ་); cooling, blunt and smooth potency (ནུས་པ་བསིལ་ལ་རྟུལ་ཞིང་འཇམ་པའོ་)

Profound value of Carthamus tinctorius in Tibetan Medicine:

• Liver disorders (མཆིན་པའི་ནད་རིགས་): safflower treat all liver disorders. It normalises the production of bile by liver. Acute and chronic hepatitis. Exacerbation of chronic hepatitis. Traumatic liver injuries. Red, dry eyes, dry stool, nose bleedings. Skin papillomas, redness, dryness and dark spots. Pain in the liver region. 
• Bleeding ( ཁྲག་ཤོར་བའི་རིགས་): safflower stops all kinds of bleeding, inner and outer, closes ruptured capillaries (རྩ་ཁ་སྡོམ་པ་). 
• Increased "bad blood" ( ཁྲག་ངན་རྒྱས་པ་): cleanses the blood and liver. Lowers the blood pressure. Strengthens the walls of blood vessels and improves circulation. Good for anemia. 
• Skin Health: safflower is valued for its benefits to skin health in Tibetan Medicine. It helps moisturize the skin, reduce inflammation, and promote healing.
• Safflower is one of the Six Excellent Drugs and is used in many formulas.

According to the Second Tibetan Medicine Tantra (བཤད་པའི་རྒྱུད།):