Ye Pu Tao
StarAmpelopsis brevipedunculata (Maxim.) Trautv.
Synonyms: Ampelopsis glandulosa var. brevipedunculata (Maxim.) Momiy., Vitis brevipedunculata Maxim., Cissus brevipedunculata (Maxim.) Koehne
Also known as: Yeh P'u T'ao · Wade–Giles
Safety at a glance
No rule in our tables for this herb: pregnancy, breastfeeding, incompatible pairs (十八反 / 十九畏), herb–drug, dose ceiling. This is not a safety clearance.
Not graded — No toxicity grade is recorded. Most herbs in the catalogue carry none.
Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
- Urinary & fluids
- Pain & joints
- Skin
- Liver & jaundice
Cautions & contraindications
- Liver conditions
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat, detoxifies, expels Wind, eliminates Dampness, disperses stasis, disperses extravasated Blood, dissipates nodules and reduces swelling
Traditional Chinese Uses
Ye Pu Tao here denotes the root of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (Vitaceae), She Pu Tao Gen, a porcelain-berry vine and not the true wild grape (Vitis). Sweet and bitter with a cold nature, entering the Lung, Liver and Large Intestine channels, it clears Heat and resolves toxicity, expels Wind and eliminates Dampness, and disperses stasis and nodulation to reduce swelling.
It is traditionally applied to lung abscess, acute appendicitis, scrofula, sores, boils and scalds, and to rheumatic joint pain (Wind-Damp Bi) and traumatic injury with swelling and bruising. It is decocted internally and the fresh root is pounded for external application to injuries, swellings and skin lesions. Modern studies note anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective activity of the stem and root.
Western Herbalism Properties
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Botanical Description
Ye Pu Tao (porcelain-berry, 蛇葡萄) is Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (Vitaceae), a deciduous woody climber of forest margins, thickets and slopes across China, Korea, Japan and the Russian Far East, distinct from true grapes (Vitis). It climbs by leaf-opposed, forked tendrils and bears broadly cordate, palmately three- to five-lobed leaves with coarsely toothed margins, roughly hairy beneath. Small greenish flowers are borne in leaf-opposed cymes and ripen into hard, globose berries about 6-8 mm across that shift through pale lilac, turquoise and porcelain-blue to violet, speckled and inedible. The chambered pith is white (not brown as in Vitis). The root and root-bark are the principal drug, dug in spring or autumn, the woody core removed, then dried or used fresh.
Forest margins, scrub, hedgerows, streambanks and mountain slopes at low to mid elevations across temperate East Asia.
Active Constituents
Vitisinol A
Resveratrol dimer (oligostilbene)Isolated from Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. hancei, vitisinol A was the least cytotoxic and the most anti-inflammatory of five oligostilbenes tested, reducing nitric oxide output and COX-2 and iNOS expression in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages at 5 micromolar. This is in vitro work on an isolated compound from one variety, not evidence for the crude drug.
(+)-epsilon-Viniferin
Resveratrol dimer (oligostilbene)A widely distributed grapevine-family stilbene dimer present in this species. It was anti-inflammatory but more cytotoxic than vitisinol A in the same macrophage assay.
(+)-Vitisin A and (-)-vitisin B
Resveratrol tetramers (oligostilbenes)Resveratrol tetramers reported from the roots of the hancei variety. Both showed anti-inflammatory activity in LPS-stimulated macrophages alongside appreciable cytotoxicity, so the margin between the two effects in vitro is narrow.
(+)-Hopeaphenol
Resveratrol tetramer (oligostilbene)A resveratrol tetramer found in the roots. It was among the more cytotoxic of the oligostilbenes assayed from this species.
Ampelopsins D, E, F, G and H
Oxidative oligostilbenes (resveratrol oligomers)A series of oligostilbenes first characterised from the roots of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. hancei, including bridged structures. Ampelopsin E and cis-ampelopsin E were reported to be antihepatotoxic, which is the chemical basis usually offered for the plant's folk use in liver disease. Note that these compounds are unrelated to ampelopsin/dihydromyricetin, the flavanonol of the different species Ampelopsis grossedentata.
Pallidol and miyabenol C
Resveratrol oligomersFurther stilbene oligomers reported alongside the ampelopsins in root material of the hancei variety.
Piceid (resveratrol 3-O-glucoside) and resveratroloside
Stilbene glucosidesMonomeric stilbene glucosides co-occurring with the oligomers. They are the same compounds found in grape and Polygonum cuspidatum and account for part of the antioxidant activity of crude extracts.
(-)-Epicatechin and condensed tannins
Flavan-3-ol and proanthocyanidinsThe tannin fraction, reported with the stilbenes. Tannins bind iron, alkaloids and some drugs in the gut lumen, which is the practical reason to space a tannin-rich decoction from oral medicines.
Apigenin, luteolin and acacetin glycosides
Flavone glycosidesFlavones reported from the aerial parts, including acacetin 7-O-rhamnoside and glucoside, luteolin 7-O-rhamnoside, apigenin 7-O-glucoside and apigenin 7-O-glucuronide. They are typical antioxidant leaf constituents and are not the fraction studied for the liver indication.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Ampelopsis japonica (Bai Lian) and Vitis species (She Pu Tao / Ye Pu Tao) supplied under the same vernacular names
This record's own Latin heading mixes Ampelopsis brevipedunculata with Vitis wilsoniae, and Ye Pu Tao and She Pu Tao are applied in Chinese usage to several wild Vitaceae. Ampelopsis japonica (Bai Lian) is the Pharmacopoeial Ampelopsis root and is a quite different drug used for sores and burns. Ampelopsis grossedentata, another confusable congener, is dominated by dihydromyricetin (ampelopsin), which Ampelopsis brevipedunculata does not contain in quantity. Almost all the published pharmacology on this species used the berries or the var. hancei roots, so material of any other identity carries none of the cited evidence.
Clinical note: Insist on the binomial on the label and on the plant part. Do not transfer claims made for Bai Lian, for Ampelopsis grossedentata teas, or for Vitis species onto this drug.
Hepatotoxic drugs (paracetamol/acetaminophen, methotrexate, isoniazid) in patients using this herb for liver disease
The hepatoprotective evidence for this plant is entirely preclinical: aqueous berry extract limited carbon tetrachloride injury in mice, an ethanol extract reduced thioacetamide fibrosis in rats and induced apoptosis in HSC-T6 stellate cells, and an extract inhibited collagen accumulation in hepatic M cell culture, though that turned out to be a consequence of inhibited cell proliferation rather than of reduced collagen synthesis. No human trial exists. The realistic hazard is that a patient with liver disease relies on the herb and delays proper monitoring while continuing a hepatotoxic drug.
Clinical note: Do not present this herb as liver protection in a patient on a hepatotoxic drug. Continue standard LFT monitoring regardless of the herb, and treat animal hepatoprotection data as no basis for reducing conventional caution.
Cytotoxic chemotherapy and other drugs with a narrow cytotoxic margin
Extracts of this species and several of its isolated oligostilbenes, particularly the resveratrol tetramers, are cytotoxic to human cell lines in vitro, and the stellate-cell study relied on the extract inducing apoptosis. Whether any of this is reproduced at oral doses in humans is unknown, since no pharmacokinetic data exist for the drug.
Clinical note: Avoid during cytotoxic chemotherapy, on the general principle that an unstudied herb with in vitro cytotoxicity should not be added to a narrow-margin regimen.
Dosage Calculator
⚖ Dosage Calculator
A weight-based mathematical estimate for Ye Pu Tao. Not a prescription.
Evidence Tier
5 studies on recordRecorded studies by study design, strongest design at the top. This is a study-design tier only, not a GRADE rating: it does not weigh risk of bias, consistency or precision.
Systematic review / meta-analysis
0
Randomized controlled trial
0
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
0
In vitro / animal
5
4 verified · 1 unverified
Show 5 studies
- Protective effects of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata against in vitro hepatic stellate cells system and thioacetamide-induced liver fibrosis rat model
- Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (Vitaceae) extract inhibits a progression of carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatic injury in the mice
- Effects of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (Vitaceae) extract on hepatic M cell culture: function in collagen biosynthesis
- Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Vitisinol A and Four Other Oligostilbenes from Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. Hancei
- Cytotoxic, antioxidant, and antimicrobial activities of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata and Parthenocissus tricuspidata (Vitaceae)
Other / unclassified
0
Verified: design read from PubMed for a DOI that resolves to the cited paper Unverified: taken from the study's recorded description
Clinical Studies
Protective effects of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata against in vitro hepatic stellate cells system and thioacetamide-induced liver fibrosis rat model
An ethanol extract of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata induced apoptosis in HSC-T6 hepatic stellate cells at 0.1 mg/mL and downregulated TGF-beta, alpha-SMA and Col1A1. In Sprague-Dawley rats given thioacetamide 200 mg/kg twice weekly for 13 weeks, the extract at 10 and 100 mg/kg orally from week 7 improved serum markers, histopathology, glutathione content and hydroxyproline accumulation, with effects the authors judged at least comparable to silymarin 50 mg/kg. Preclinical only; groups of eight, no human data.
Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (Vitaceae) extract inhibits a progression of carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatic injury in the mice
An aqueous fraction made by steeping the berries in 40% ethanol for six months, given ad libitum as drinking water, reduced centrilobular necrosis, vacuolation, cellular swelling, inflammation and fibrosis, and lowered plasma transaminases, in mice given non-lethal carbon tetrachloride twice weekly for nine weeks. Note the drug tested was the berry preparation used in Japanese folk medicine, not the root that this record names.
Effects of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (Vitaceae) extract on hepatic M cell culture: function in collagen biosynthesis
A spirits-extracted berry fraction reduced accumulation of collagen fibres on rat hepatic M cell layers, but tracer studies showed it did not decrease collagen or non-collagenous protein synthesis unless cell proliferation was inhibited, and no collagenolytic activity was detectable. The authors concluded the apparent antifibrotic effect was a consequence of inhibited cell proliferation, and localised the activity to a sugar-rich, protein-free macromolecular fraction rather than to the stilbenes.
Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Vitisinol A and Four Other Oligostilbenes from Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. Hancei
Five resveratrol derivatives isolated from Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. hancei were compared for cytotoxicity (MTT) and anti-inflammatory activity in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. Vitisinol A was the least cytotoxic and, at 5 micromolar, produced the largest reduction in nitric oxide and in COX-2 and iNOS expression of the five. The other four, including the tetramers vitisin A, vitisin B and hopeaphenol, were more cytotoxic.
Cytotoxic, antioxidant, and antimicrobial activities of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata and Parthenocissus tricuspidata (Vitaceae)
Screened extracts of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata against human tumour cell lines and a panel of microorganisms and measured antioxidant capacity, alongside the related Parthenocissus tricuspidata. Extracts showed measurable cytotoxicity and antioxidant activity. A broad in vitro screen only, with no dosing or safety implications for the crude drug.
References
- Oshima Y, Ueno Y. Ampelopsins E, E, H and cis-ampelopsin E, oligostilbenes from Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. Hancei roots . Phytochemistry (1993) [DOI]
- Oshima Y, Ueno Y, Hisamichi K, Takeshita M. Ampelopsins F and G, novel bridged plant oligostilbenes from Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. hancei roots (vitaceae) . Tetrahedron (1993) [DOI]
- Yabe N, Tanaka K, Matsui H. An ethanol-extract of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (Vitaceae) berries decreases ferrous iron-stimulated hepatocyte injury in culture . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (1998) [DOI]
This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any herbal remedy, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medications.
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