Etymology
The species name lives up to the epithet, mutabilis meaning changeable or variable. Many of the common names draw upon its colorful mutability - opening up pale pink or white and darkening into shades of red as the day advances. Confederate Rose is a common name that colors the epithet with the drama of the Civil War, a felled soldier bleeding unto a bed of white hibiscus flowers, the petals slowly soaking red.

Botany
Erect, branched bushy shrub or small tree, about 6- 10 feet high, densely covered with short, grayish stellate hairs. Leaves are broadly ovate to orbicular ovate, 5-lobed or 5-angled, 7 to 20 cm long, with pointed tip, heart-shaped base and toothed margins. Calyx is 3 to 4 cm long, with 5 oblong-ovate lobes, connate below. Corolla is 10 to 12 cm in diameter, single or double, opening pale pink or nearly white, growing darker in color as the day advances.

Distribution
Ornamental cultivation.

Constituents
- Study isolated five flavonol glycosides from the ethanol extract of petals.
- Study isolated ten compounds: tetracosanoic acid, B-sitosterol, daucosterol, salicylic acid, emodin, rutin, kaemferol-3-O-B-rutinoside, kaemferol-3-O-B-robinobinoside, kaemferol-3-O-B-D-(6-E-p-hy-droxycinnamoyl)-glucopyranoside.

Properties
Flowers are considered pectoral, emollient and cooling.
Considered expectorant, cooling, antidotal.

Parts used
Leaves, roots, flowers.

Uses
Folkloric
- In China, flowers and leaves considered expectorant, colling, analgesic and antidote to all kinds of poison.
- Used for coughs, menorrhagia, dysuria and wounds, especially burns and scalds that are slow to heal.
- Leaves and flowers applied to swellings and skin infections.
- Infusion of flowers used for chest and pulmonary complaints.

Studies
• Antiproliferative / Anti-HIV1 Reverse Transcriptase / Lectin: Study isolated a hexameric 150-kDa lectin from dried H mutabilis seeds. The galactonic acid-binding lectin potently inhibited HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. It also exhibited weak antiproliferative activity towards hepatoma HepG2 cells and breast cancer MCF-7 cells.
• Nitric Oxide Scavenging Activity: Study of the ethanol extracts of four medicinal plants, including Hibiscus mutabilis, showed dose-dependent NO scavenging activity. Results suggest a potential for the plants as novel therapeutic agents in the regulation of pathologic conditions caused by excessive generation of NO and its oxidation product.
• Anti-Tyrosinase Activity: In a study of four species of Hibiscus, H mutabilis was next to H tiliaceus in anti-tyrosinase activity.

Availability
Wild-crafted.
Cultivated.
Flower extracts in the cybermarket.