Bian Dou Hua
StarLablab purpureus (L.) Sweet
Traditionally used for
- Digestion
- Bowel health
- Menstrual & women's health
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Summer-Heat and Resolves Dampness; Strengthens the Spleen and Harmonizes the Middle; Stops Dysentery; Astringes to Stop Vaginal Discharge
Traditional Chinese Uses
Bian Dou Hua (hyacinth bean flower) is a neutral, sweet herb used in Chinese medicine to resolve Summerheat, clear Dampness, and harmonize the Stomach. It is used for Summerheat-Damp patterns with nausea, diarrhea, and digestive discomfort during hot, humid weather, as well as for Damp-Heat dysentery and leukorrhea. As the flower of the white hyacinth bean (Bai Bian Dou), it shares similar Spleen-supporting and Dampness-clearing properties but in a lighter, more easily-dispersing form suited to the upper digestive tract.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Lablab purpureus is a vigorous twining herbaceous perennial vine in the Fabaceae family widely cultivated across the tropics and subtropics as a pulse, vegetable, and ornamental, and treated as an annual in temperate climates. The climbing stems reach 3-6 m, often tinged purple, and bear large trifoliolate leaves with broadly ovate-rhombic leaflets 6-15 cm long. Showy axillary racemes 15-40 cm long display fragrant pea-like flowers in white, lilac, or deep purple, each about 1.5 cm long with an upright standard, lateral wings, and a sharply incurved keel. The fruit is a flat, glossy, sickle-shaped purplish or green pod 4-12 cm long tipped with a persistent style, containing 2-5 oval seeds with a conspicuous white linear hilum. Bian Dou Hua refers specifically to the dried open flowers, collected during the flowering season before fading.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Bai Bian Dou (Semen Lablab Album, the seed of the same plant), when supplied or substituted for the flower
Bian Dou Hua is the dried flower and Bai Bian Dou the dried seed of the same species; they are different drugs with different indications and dosing. The seed contains a well-characterised mannose/glucose-binding legume lectin (variously called DLL or FRIL), a protein that survives in raw seed and belongs to the class of legume lectins responsible for acute gastrointestinal toxicity from undercooked beans. Traditional practice reflects this: the seed is generally dry-fried before use, and the raw seed is regarded as the toxic form. No lectin or cyanogenic content has been reported for the flower.
Clinical note: Check that a supplier dispensing Bian Dou Hua is sending flower and not seed, and that any Bai Bian Dou is the prepared (stir-fried) drug. The flower itself has no reported toxicity.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 3–9 g | Daily | — | — | Standard oral dose per Xi S, Gong Y. Essentials of Chinese Materia Medica and Medical Formulas. Academic Press/Elsevier, 2017, pp. 341–342. Exact wording: Normally, 3–9 g is decocted with water as an oral |
⚠ Safety & Contraindications
Contraindications
No special contraindications.
Source: Xi S, Gong Y. Essentials of Chinese Materia Medica and Medical Formulas. Academic Press/Elsevier, 2017, pp. 341–342.
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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