Traditionally used for
- Nose & throat
- Cough & breathing
- Digestion
- Bowel health
- Urinary & fluids
- Pain & joints
Cautions & contraindications
- Pregnancy
- Heart conditions
- Toxic — professional use only
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat and resolves toxicity; Dispels Wind and stops pain; Resolves Dampness and r educes swelling
Traditional Chinese Uses
Bei Dou Gen is the rhizome of the Asiatic (Daurian) moonseed, Menispermum dauricum (Rhizoma Menispermi). Bitter and cold, entering the Lung, Stomach, Large Intestine, Bladder and Heart channels, it clears Heat and resolves toxicity, dispels Wind and stops pain, and drains Dampness to reduce swelling. Its best-known use is for Heat-toxin sore, swollen throat, including tonsillitis and pharyngitis, where it is a common ingredient.
It is also applied to damp-heat dysentery and enteritis, and to Wind-Damp painful obstruction (rheumatic joint pain). The rhizome is rich in alkaloids such as dauricine, which underlie its anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects; because of this alkaloid content dosage should be kept moderate. It is typically decocted, usually around 3-9 g.
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Botanical Description
Menispermum dauricum, the Daurian moonseed, is a slender deciduous woody climbing vine of the Menispermaceae family native to northeastern China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and adjacent Russia, where it inhabits forest margins, thickets, and stream banks. The plant produces twining annual or biennial green stems that ascend two to three meters from a long, creeping, branching, yellow-brown subterranean rhizome. Leaves are alternate, long-petioled, and broadly peltate with a heart-shaped or shallowly three- to seven-lobed outline, smooth above and finely pubescent beneath. The vine is dioecious, bearing small greenish-yellow unisexual flowers in slender axillary panicles in early summer; female plants subsequently produce small spherical drupes that ripen blue-black, each containing the distinctive crescent or horseshoe-shaped seed characteristic of the family.
Active Constituents
Daurisoline
Bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloidConcentration: The most abundant alkaloid of the rhizome; 6.72 mg per gram of dried rhizome under optimised methanolic ultrasonic extraction, and 48.9 percent of the phenolic alkaloid fraction by HPLC
The dominant alkaloid by mass. It is a natural autophagy blocker and contributes to the neuroprotective activity attributed to the phenolic alkaloid fraction in cerebral ischaemia models.
Dauricine
Bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloidConcentration: 1.05 mg per gram of dried rhizome under optimised methanolic ultrasonic extraction, and 24.7 percent of the phenolic alkaloid fraction by HPLC
The compound most of the pharmacology is attributed to: it inhibits potassium and calcium currents in cardiac myocytes, prolongs the effective refractory period, suppresses NF-kB signalling, and is neuroprotective in ischaemia models. It is also the compound behind the herb's principal hazards. It blocks the hERG potassium channel with an IC50 of 3.5 micromolar in vitro, and it is bioactivated by CYP3A to electrophilic quinone methide metabolites that deplete glutathione, producing hepatic and pulmonary injury in mice at 150 mg/kg.
Guattegaumerine
Bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloidConcentration: 5.8 percent of the phenolic alkaloid fraction of the rhizome by HPLC
A minor bisbenzylisoquinoline of the same structural family as dauricine and daurisoline, part of the phenolic alkaloid fraction shown to protect against brain ischaemia injury in rats.
Dauricicoline
Bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloidConcentration: 2.9 percent of the phenolic alkaloid fraction of the rhizome by HPLC
A minor constituent of the phenolic alkaloid fraction; the remainder of that fraction is made up of fat-soluble alkaloids.
⚠ Drug Interactions
QT-prolonging drugs (e.g. amiodarone, sotalol, haloperidol, citalopram, moxifloxacin, ondansetron)
Dauricine, the herb's marker alkaloid, inhibits the hERG (IKr) potassium current concentration-dependently with an IC50 of 3.5 micromolar, and inhibits IKs, IKr and IK1 in cardiac myocytes. hERG blockade is the canonical mechanism of drug-induced torsades. The evidence is electrophysiological and in vitro; there are no published human cases of arrhythmia attributed to this herb, and plasma concentrations reached from a 3-9 g decoction have not been measured.
Clinical note: Avoid in patients on other QT-prolonging drugs, with congenital long QT, or with hypokalaemia or hypomagnesaemia. Do not exceed the Pharmacopoeia dose of 3-9 g and do not extend courses. Chinese sources report toxicity from single adult intakes above about 10 g of the crude drug, with nausea, vomiting, palpitations and breathlessness.
CYP3A4 inhibitors (e.g. ketoconazole, itraconazole, clarithromycin, ritonavir, grapefruit juice)
Dauricine undergoes hepatic first-pass metabolism largely by CYP3A4, with N-desmethyl dauricine as the main metabolite. CYP3A-mediated oxidation also generates the quinone methide metabolites responsible for its hepatic and pulmonary toxicity in mice, and ketoconazole protected against both. So CYP3A inhibition cuts one hazard (reactive metabolite) while raising the other (parent alkaloid exposure, and with it hERG block). Documented at the compound level in animals, not for the whole herb in patients.
Clinical note: Treat concurrent strong CYP3A4 inhibitors as a reason to reduce or omit the herb rather than to reassure; the net effect is a higher parent-drug exposure with an unchanged cardiac liability.
Calcium channel blockers, beta-blockers and other negative chronotropes (e.g. verapamil, diltiazem, metoprolol)
Dauricine inhibits calcium as well as potassium currents in cardiac myocytes and prolongs the effective refractory period, which is the basis of its described antiarrhythmic action. Adding it to a drug that works on the same currents is pharmacodynamically additive. No clinical study has tested the combination.
Clinical note: Monitor heart rate and blood pressure if the herb is used alongside rate-controlling cardiac drugs, and stop it if bradycardia, dizziness or syncope appear.
Shan Dou Gen (Sophora tonkinensis) - dispensing substitution hazard rather than a pharmacological interaction
Bei Dou Gen (Menispermum dauricum rhizome) and Shan Dou Gen (Sophora tonkinensis root) share the dou gen name and overlapping sore-throat indications, and were historically used interchangeably under confused names before Bei Dou Gen received its own Chinese Pharmacopoeia monograph in the 1980s. They are different families with different alkaloids and markedly different toxicity, and Chinese pharmacovigilance literature treats the mix-up as a recognised cause of adverse events. Much of the classical text material circulating under the heading bei dou gen online, including Kai Bao Ben Cao and Ben Cao Qiu Zhen quotations, in fact belongs to Shan Dou Gen.
Clinical note: Check the botanical source on the label, not the Chinese name, when dispensing. Do not accept classical citations for this herb without confirming they refer to Menispermum rather than Sophora.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 3–9 g | Daily | — | — | 中国药典 2020 monograph 【北豆根】【用法与用量】3～9g。 【性味与归经】苦，寒；有小毒。归肺、胃、大肠经。 — Matched to ChP by romanised drug name (pinyin 'Bei Dou Gen' → 北豆根); the romanisation is unique across all 649 ChP monographs, and the match was cross-checked against this record's own TCM temperature. Quoted verbatim. |
Evidence Tier
Limited evidence · 2 studiesRecorded 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
2
1 verified · 1 unverified
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
Inhibitory effects of a bisbenzylisoquinline alkaloid dauricine on HERG potassium channels
Dauricine inhibited the hERG current concentration-dependently with an IC50 of 3.5 micromolar. Because hERG blockade underlies most drug-induced torsades de pointes, this is the key safety finding for the herb's marker alkaloid, and it sits awkwardly beside the antiarrhythmic action for which the alkaloid has been promoted.
Phenolic Alkaloids from Menispermum dauricum Rhizome Protect against Brain Ischemia Injury via Regulation of GLT-1, EAAC1 and ROS Generation
The phenolic alkaloid fraction of the rhizome, characterised by HPLC as 48.9 percent daurisoline, 24.7 percent dauricine, 5.8 percent guattegaumerine and 2.9 percent dauricicoline, reduced brain ischaemia injury, with effects on the glutamate transporters GLT-1 and EAAC1 and on reactive oxygen species generation. The composition data in this paper is the most useful quantitative description of the herb's alkaloid profile.
⚠ Safety & Contraindications
- Pregnancy
- Heart conditions
- Toxic — professional use only
Contraindications
Use with caution in pregnancy and in the weak or depleted with cold in the middle burner.
Safety Warnings
- Dose-sensitive; not for prolonged use.
⚠ Toxicity Information
Nausea, vomiting and abdominal discomfort; overdose has produced hypotension and respiratory depression.
References
- Chen Ke-Qian; Wang Shu-Zhi; Lei Hai-Bo; Liu Xiang. Dauricine: Review of Pharmacological Activity . Drug Design, Development and Therapy (2024) [DOI]
- Lee A Yeong; Kim Hyo Seon; Choi Goya; Kang Young Min; Kim Ho Kyoung. Optimization of Ultrasonic-Assisted Extraction of Daurisoline and Dauricine from Menispermi Rhizoma by Response Surface Methodology . Journal of Liquid Chromatography and Related Technologies (2015) [DOI]
- Zhou Jue; Qu Fan; Nan Rui. Genetic and alkaloid analysis of Menispermum Dauricum DC. by RAPD and HPLC . Phytochemical Analysis (2007) [DOI]
- Liu Xiaoying; Liu Qian; Wang Dongmei; Wang Xueya; Zhang Peng; Xu Haiyan; Zhao Hui; Zhao Huaiqing. Validated liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for quantitative determination of dauricine in human plasma and its application to pharmacokinetic study . Journal of Chromatography B (2010) [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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