Bei Sha Shen
StarGlehnia littoralis Fr. Schmidt ex Miq.
Traditionally used for
- Nose & throat
- Cough & breathing
- Colds & fever
- Digestion
☯ TCM Properties
Nourishes Yin and clears the Lungs; Benefits the Stomach and Generates Fluids; Clears Lung Heat; Resolves Phlegm and Stops Cough
Traditional Chinese Uses
Bei Sha Shen (north glehnia root) is a cool herb that nourishes Lung and Stomach Yin and generates Body Fluids. It is specifically indicated for dryness patterns — including dry cough with scanty phlegm, a parched or sore throat, dry mouth, and inadequate salivation. Lighter and more focused on the Upper Burner than some other Yin-nourishing herbs, it is commonly used in the convalescent phase of febrile illness when dryness and mild Heat persist.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Glehnia littoralis is a low-growing perennial herb in the family Apiaceae, distributed along sandy coastal beaches and dunes of eastern Asia and the Pacific Rim, from northern China, Korea, Japan, and the Russian Far East across to the Pacific coast of North America. The plant produces a long, slender, white taproot that penetrates deeply into shifting sand. Above ground, it forms a low rosette 10-30 cm tall of glossy, leathery, glaucous-green leaves that are ternately or pinnately compound with broadly ovate, coarsely toothed leaflets adapted to resist salt spray and wind. Compact compound umbels of small white flowers appear in summer on short, stout, white-woolly peduncles, followed by ovoid, densely hairy schizocarp fruits with corky wings. The species favors well-drained pure sand in full sun and is harvested in summer or autumn for its starchy aromatic root.
Active Constituents
Linear furanocoumarins (psoralen, xanthotoxin/8-methoxypsoralen, bergapten/5-methoxypsoralen, imperatorin, isoimperatorin, bergamottin/5-geranyloxypsoralen)
FuranocoumarinsConcentration: 44 furanocoumarins have been reported from the species; the combined content of psoralen, imperatorin and isoimperatorin in the root has been measured at around 0.077 mg/g, against 0.6364 mg/g in the fruit, which is 8.24 times higher than root. Japanese N-type plants of the northern range carry more than 0.1% total furanocoumarins, S-type plants of the southern range less than 0.1%
The defining and the most safety-relevant class in this root. Bergapten and xanthotoxin are the same molecules used clinically as photosensitisers in PUVA therapy, and psoralen and imperatorin are documented mechanism-based inactivators of cytochrome P450 enzymes. Psoralen, xanthotoxin and bergapten are inducible phytoalexins in this species: bacterial challenge of root slices raises their levels, so a stressed or diseased crop can carry more than a healthy one. This is also the class that separates Bei Sha Shen from Nan Sha Shen, which as a Campanulaceae root has no furanocoumarins at all.
Pyranocoumarins (khellactone diesters, including cis-3',4'-diisobutyrylkhellactone)
PyranocoumarinsConcentration: 6 pyranocoumarins reported from the species, within a total of 67 coumarins
Reported to inhibit LPS-induced nitric oxide production in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Unlike the linear furanocoumarins, the angular pyranocoumarin skeleton is not associated with photosensitisation.
Simple coumarins (umbelliferone, scopoletin, scopolin, esculetin, marmesin)
Simple coumarinsConcentration: 17 simple coumarins reported from the species
The minor coumarin fraction. Marmesin is the biosynthetic bridge to the linear furanocoumarins, which is why a high-marmesin batch is not reassuring about furanocoumarin content.
C17 polyacetylenes (falcarindiol, falcarinol, panaxydiol)
PolyacetylenesConcentration: 8 polyacetylenes reported; falcarindiol and falcarinol are among the five compounds used as HPLC fingerprint markers for Radix Glehniae alongside psoralen, imperatorin and isoimperatorin
Lipophilic Apiaceae polyacetylenes and the most cytotoxic compounds in the root in vitro. Falcarinol and falcarindiol from Glehnia littoralis roots are cytotoxic to oxaliplatin-sensitive and oxaliplatin-resistant colorectal cancer cells and to gefitinib-sensitive and gefitinib-resistant non-small cell lung cancer cells. Falcarinol is also a known contact allergen across the Apiaceae, which is relevant to dispensary staff handling the raw root rather than to patients drinking the decoction.
Water-soluble polysaccharides (arabinose-rich, including arabinan fractions)
PolysaccharidesConcentration: water-soluble crude polysaccharide 24.49% of the root, with starch 22.07% and soluble sugar 14.96%
Quantitatively the largest fraction of the root and the fraction credited with its immunoregulatory reputation. Purified Glehnia root polysaccharides show radical-scavenging and immunomodulatory activity in vitro, and an arabinan from the species has been reported to activate immunity and inhibit angiogenesis. All of this is preclinical.
Lignans (glehlinosides A to J, secoisolariciresinol derivatives, citrusin A)
LignansConcentration: 16 lignans reported from the species
A structurally distinctive but pharmacologically under-investigated group; no activity is well established for them in this plant.
Volatile oil, dominated by (2E,4E)-deca-2,4-dienal
Volatile oil (aliphatic aldehydes and alcohols)Concentration: (2E,4E)-deca-2,4-dienal 21.27% of the oil, (E)-oct-2-en-1-ol 8.53% by GC-MS
The source of the characteristic aroma that lets a dispenser tell Bei Sha Shen from the odourless Nan Sha Shen by smell alone. No therapeutic role is established for it.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Li Lu (Veratrum nigrum and other Veratrum species)
This is the rare case where a classical prohibition has been tested and held up. The Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing's incompatibility tables state that Sha Shen clashes with Li Lu (Radix et Rhizoma Veratri) and is averse to Fang Ji, and Sha Shen fan Li Lu is one of the eighteen classical antagonisms. Modern review of Glehnia toxicology finds that the root used alone is almost nontoxic, tolerated in mice up to 32 g/kg, roughly 13.3 times the clinical dose, but that co-decoction of Glehnia littoralis with Veratrum nigrum produced 65 to 90% mouse mortality at equivalent doses. Veratrum alkaloids are cardiotoxic sodium-channel agonists with a very narrow margin in their own right; the combination appears to worsen that rather than to create a new toxin.
Clinical note: Do not combine Bei Sha Shen with Li Lu in any formula, and check for Veratrum in patent preparations and in emetic or ectoparasiticidal folk preparations a patient may be using separately. The prohibition is absolute in practice; there is no dose at which the pairing is worth attempting.
Nan Sha Shen (Adenophora tetraphylla and related Adenophora species, Campanulaceae) as a commercial substitute
Bei Sha Shen and Nan Sha Shen share the name Sha Shen and are commercially mixed or substituted for one another, but they are not related: Glehnia littoralis is Apiaceae, Adenophora is Campanulaceae. The history explains why the confusion is structural rather than accidental. Every pre-Ming reference to Sha Shen, including the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing entry, denotes what is now called Nan Sha Shen; the term zhen bei sha shen (true northern sha shen) first appears in the Ming text Ben Cao Hui Yan, and Bei Sha Shen was only fixed as the root of Glehnia littoralis in the 1963 Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Modern translations of the classics that gloss the Sha Shen entry as Radix Glehniae are therefore retrofitting a Ming-and-later identity onto a Han text.
The consequences are two-way. Substituting Adenophora for Glehnia removes the entire furanocoumarin fraction, so any photosensitisation or CYP concern disappears, and so does whatever activity depends on those compounds. Substituting Glehnia for Adenophora introduces furanocoumarins into a prescription written for a root that contains none. Clinically the two are not equivalent either: Bei Sha Shen is the stronger moistener of Stomach yin, Nan Sha Shen the better choice for Lung qi and phlegm.
Clinical note: Verify by morphology and smell: Bei Sha Shen roots are slender, firm and dense with a distinct aroma, Nan Sha Shen roots thicker, lighter, spongy and odourless. If a formula's rationale depends on which one it is, specify the binomial on the order rather than the pinyin, and check what arrives.
CYP3A4 substrates with narrow margins (ciclosporin, tacrolimus, simvastatin, midazolam, some kinase inhibitors)
Glehnia root carries linear furanocoumarins, the compound class responsible for the grapefruit juice effect, and Memorial Sloan Kettering's herb monograph advises avoiding glehnia with CYP3A4 substrate drugs on the grounds that the furanocoumarins may inhibit CYP3A4 dose-dependently, while stating plainly that clinical relevance is not known. The class evidence is solid at enzyme level: bergamottin, 6',7'-dihydroxybergamottin, bergapten and related furanocoumarins inhibit CYP3A4, and mechanism-based inactivation of CYP3A4 is the commonest route to clinically important interactions. What is missing is any human study of Glehnia littoralis itself, and the root's total furanocoumarin content is low compared with the fruit, so extrapolating grapefruit-strength inhibition from grapefruit-strength doses would overstate the case.
Clinical note: Treat as a caution rather than a contraindication. Avoid open-ended concurrent use with ciclosporin, tacrolimus or another substrate where a modest rise in exposure has real consequences, and if the herb is important to the case, monitor the substrate's levels or effect rather than guessing.
CYP2B6 substrates (efavirenz, bupropion, cyclophosphamide, ketamine)
Two of this root's principal furanocoumarins are documented mechanism-based inactivators of CYP2B6 in vitro. Psoralen was shown to inactivate CYP2B6 in a time-, concentration- and NADPH-dependent manner, and imperatorin has been characterised the same way in the same laboratory. Mechanism-based inactivation matters more clinically than reversible inhibition because the enzyme has to be resynthesised, so the effect outlasts the herb in the bloodstream. This is in vitro human recombinant and microsomal work, with no in vivo confirmation for Glehnia.
Clinical note: Relevant mainly for efavirenz-based antiretroviral therapy and for cyclophosphamide, which needs CYP2B6 for bioactivation, so inhibition could reduce rather than increase effect. Flag the herb to the prescribing team rather than adjusting anything yourself.
Photosensitising drugs and light-based treatment (PUVA, photodynamic therapy, doxycycline, amiodarone, voriconazole, thiazides, radiotherapy fields)
The concern is specific, not generic. Bergapten (5-methoxypsoralen) and xanthotoxin (8-methoxypsoralen), both present in this root, are the actual drugs used to photosensitise skin in PUVA therapy. Linear furanocoumarins intercalate into DNA and, on UVA exposure, form monoadducts and interstrand crosslinks, impairing transcription and replication and producing the phototoxic reaction. Memorial Sloan Kettering advises avoiding glehnia during radiation therapy for this reason.
Sizing the risk honestly: the combined psoralen, imperatorin and isoimperatorin content of the root has been measured at roughly 0.077 mg/g, so a 9 to 15 g daily decoction dose puts the intake of those three compounds in the region of a milligram, the same order as the European Medicines Agency's view that 1.5 mg of furocoumarins per day in a herbal medicinal product does not add materially to overall dietary risk, and well above the 15 microgram threshold of toxicological concern that applies when no such dietary comparison is made. Average Western dietary furocoumarin intake is itself 1.2 to 1.5 mg/day. So the exposure is not trivial and it is not alarming; it is comparable to a normal diet's, and it is additive on top of it. No case of photodermatitis attributable to Bei Sha Shen was found in the literature, and Glehnia review data note that no adverse reactions have been reported and that there are no human studies at all.
Clinical note: Do not use Bei Sha Shen during a course of PUVA or photodynamic therapy, or over a radiotherapy field. Otherwise no special precaution is needed at normal doses, but if a patient is already on a photosensitising drug and burns easily, mention sun protection, and use the root rather than the fruit or seed of the plant, which carry roughly eight times the furanocoumarin load.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 5–12 g | Daily | — | — | 中国药典 2020 【用法与用量】5～12g。 【注意】不宜与藜芦同用。 【性味与归经】甘、微苦，微寒。归肺、胃经。 — Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020, quoted verbatim; route and cautions preserved. Replaces a cleared category-filler value. |
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 4 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
4
1 verified · 3 unverified
Show 4 studies
- Cytotoxic activity of C17 polyacetylenes from the roots of Glehnia littoralis against drug-resistant colorectal and lung cancer cells
- Structural elucidation, anti-radical and immunomodulatory activities of polysaccharides from the roots of Glehnia littoralis
- Psoralen, a mechanism-based inactivator of CYP2B6
- Psoralen and other linear furanocoumarins as phytoalexins in Glehnia littoralis
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
Cytotoxic activity of C17 polyacetylenes from the roots of Glehnia littoralis against drug-resistant colorectal and lung cancer cells
C17 polyacetylenes isolated from Glehnia littoralis roots, falcarinol and falcarindiol among them, were cytotoxic to both oxaliplatin-sensitive and oxaliplatin-resistant colorectal cancer cells and to both gefitinib-sensitive and gefitinib-resistant non-small cell lung cancer cells. Retained activity in the resistant lines is the interesting part. Cell culture only: this is not evidence that a Bei Sha Shen decoction has antitumour activity, and the polyacetylenes are lipophilic compounds whose extraction into a water decoction is limited.
Structural elucidation, anti-radical and immunomodulatory activities of polysaccharides from the roots of Glehnia littoralis
Crude polysaccharide was ultrasonically extracted from Glehnia littoralis roots and purified on DEAE-52 cellulose and Sephadex G-100 to give the fraction GLP80-1, whose structure was characterised. The purified polysaccharide showed radical-scavenging and immunomodulatory activity in vitro. This is the fraction behind the herb's immunoregulatory reputation, and it is worth noting it is the water-soluble fraction, so unlike the polyacetylenes it does transfer into a decoction.
Psoralen, a mechanism-based inactivator of CYP2B6
Psoralen, one of the marker furanocoumarins of Radix Glehniae, was characterised as a mechanism-based inactivator of human CYP2B6, with time-, concentration- and NADPH-dependent loss of enzyme activity. Mechanism-based inactivation is the form of inhibition that persists after the inhibitor has been cleared, since the enzyme must be resynthesised. The study was done with recombinant enzyme and microsomes, not with the herb, so it establishes that a Glehnia constituent can do this, not that a Glehnia decoction does.
Psoralen and other linear furanocoumarins as phytoalexins in Glehnia littoralis
Inoculation of Glehnia littoralis root slices with Pseudomonas cichorii induced four linear furanocoumarin phytoalexins: psoralen, xanthotoxin, bergapten and demethylsuberosin, against a background in which 5-geranyloxypsoralen (bergamottin) is the main constitutive component. The practical implication for a reference database is that the phototoxic constituents of this root are stress-inducible, so furanocoumarin content is not a fixed property of the species but varies with how the crop was grown, stored and handled.
⚠ Rule-Based Cautions
These entries come from the deterministic rule tables that gate Verscienta's formula tools — classical pair prohibitions, pregnancy and lactation contraindications, and dose ceilings.
Incompatibilities (十八反 / 十九畏)
- 十八反: Li Lu × Sha Shen — avoid combining with Li Lu / Veratrum
Historical Texts
Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing
Han dynastyBen Cao Hui Yan
Ming dynastyReferences
- Li Shiyang; Xu Nan; Fang Qinqin; Cheng Xuemei; Chen Jiamei; Liu Ping; Li Li; Wang Changhong; Liu Wei. Glehnia littoralis Fr. Schmidtex Miq.: A systematic review on ethnopharmacology, chemical composition, pharmacology and quality control . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2023) [DOI]
- Yang Min; Li Xue; Zhang Lei; Wang Congcong; Ji Mingyue; Xu Jianping; Zhang Keyong; Liu Jicheng; Zhang Chunhong; Li Minhui. Ethnopharmacology, Phytochemistry, and Pharmacology of the Genus Glehnia: A Systematic Review . Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2019) [DOI]
- Yang Wei; Feng Chao; Kong Dezhi; Shi Xiaowei; Zheng Xuguang; Cui Yang; Liu Man; Zhang Lantong; Wang Qiao. Simultaneous determination of 15 components in Radix Glehniae by high performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry . Food Chemistry (2010) [DOI]
- Hiraoka Noboru; Chang Jung-In; Bohm Lesley R.; Bohm Bruce A.. Furanocoumarin and polyacetylenic compound composition of wild Glehnia littoralis in North America . Biochemical Systematics and Ecology (2002) [DOI]
- Qu Zhenni; Gao Qi; Liu Menghan; Zhang Qiang; Shi Dianhua; Gao Peng; Dai Yanpeng. Extraction, Purification, Structure, and Bioactivities of Polysaccharides from Glehnia littoralis: A Review . Molecules (2025) [DOI]
- Kerekes D, Csorba A, Gosztola B, Németh-Zámbori É, Kiss T, Csupor D. Furocoumarin Content of Fennel—Below the Safety Threshold . Molecules (2019) [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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