Spanish-needles
StarBidens bipinnata
Synonyms: Bidens cynapiifolia var. portoricensis, Bidens wallichii, Bidens myrrhidifolia, Bidens bipinnata var. simplicior, Bidens portoricensis, Kerneria bipinnata, Bidens decomposita, Bidens pilosa var. bipinnata, Bidens elongata, Bidens pilosa var. decomposita, Bidens bipinnata var. biternatoides, Bidens bipinnata var. minor, Bidens cicutifolia
Traditionally used for
- Nose & throat
Western Herbalism Properties
Traditional Uses
The Cherokee used Bidens bipinnata medicinally: an infusion was taken for intestinal worms, and the leaves were chewed for sore throat (NAEB: Hamel and Chiltoskey, 1975).
Gallery
Botanical Description
Bidens bipinnata, commonly known as Spanish needles, is an erect annual herb of the family Asteraceae, widely naturalized throughout the warm temperate and tropical regions of the world and probably native to the Americas. It typically reaches 30–170 cm in height, with slender, four-angled, sparsely pubescent stems that branch freely in the upper portion. The leaves are opposite, petiolate, and characteristically bipinnately to tripinnately divided into narrow, deeply toothed segments, giving the foliage a feathery, fern-like appearance. The terminal flower heads are small and rather inconspicuous, 6–12 mm across, with three to five short, pale-yellow ray florets surrounding a disk of yellow tubular florets. After flowering, the heads produce slender, four-angled black achenes 10–18 mm long, each tipped with three or four stiff, retrorsely barbed awns that cling readily to clothing and animal fur, providing the plant with its common names and an effective dispersal mechanism. It favours disturbed ground, roadsides, fields and gardens.
Active Constituents
Chlorogenic acid
Hydroxycinnamic acid ester (caffeoylquinic acid)Concentration: One of six markers quantified by HPLC at 270 nm across 18 batches of Bidentis Herba; batch-to-batch relative standard deviation for the six markers ran from 36 to 123 percent
A principal water-soluble phenolic of the aerial herb and one of the official assay markers for the drug. Its very wide batch variation is the main reason two lots of this herb are not interchangeable by weight.
Neochlorogenic acid
Hydroxycinnamic acid ester (caffeoylquinic acid)Quantified alongside chlorogenic acid in the HPLC assay for the drug; a constitutive phenolic of the aerial parts rather than a species-specific marker.
Isochlorogenic acid A and isochlorogenic acid B
Dicaffeoylquinic acidsBoth are quantified quality markers, and isochlorogenic acids A and B were among the three variables that best separated this species from Bidens biternata by OPLS-DA. They carry much of the antioxidant activity of an aqueous extract.
Rutin
Flavonol glycoside (quercetin-3-O-rutinoside)The single most discriminating marker between this species and Bidens biternata in chemical pattern recognition of Bidentis Herba, and one of the twelve flavonoids identified by UHPLC-Q-TOF in the enriched total flavonoid fraction.
Hyperoside
Flavonol glycoside (quercetin-3-O-galactoside)A quantified assay marker of the drug and part of the flavonoid fraction credited with the antioxidant and beta-cell protective activity of the herb.
Okanin
ChalconeA chalcone characteristic of Bidens and Coreopsis. Treating AGS gastric carcinoma cells with okanin lowered EGFR expression in the cell-based arm of a network pharmacology study of this herb. Note that the widely cited okanin cancer pharmacology was done on the isolated compound, not on the herb.
Luteolin
FlavoneOne of nine drug-like constituents mapped for this herb in a network pharmacology analysis; in AGS cells it reduced both EGFR and MAPK1 expression. It is a common Asteraceae flavone and not a marker unique to this species.
Quercetin
FlavonolAglycone of the rutin and hyperoside present in the herb, and independently active in the cell arm of the gastric cancer network pharmacology work, lowering EGFR and MAPK1 in AGS cells.
Total flavonoid fraction of the aerial herb
Mixed flavonoid fraction (flavones, flavonols and their glycosides)Concentration: 56.48 percent total flavonoids after AB-8 macroporous resin enrichment under optimised conditions
The fraction on which most of the pharmacology rests. It inhibits alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase in vitro and protects INS-1 pancreatic beta-cells from hydrogen peroxide induced apoptosis by damping reactive oxygen species, Bax, Fas and FasL and the JNK, ERK and p38 pathways.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Insulin, sulfonylureas and other glucose-lowering drugs
The flavonoid-rich fraction of this herb inhibits alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase in vitro and protects INS-1 beta-cells against oxidative apoptosis, and the herb has a folk reputation in China as an antidiabetic. Direct human data for this species are absent; the closest human evidence is a pilot study of a formulation of the congener Bidens pilosa, which improved blood glucose homeostasis and beta-cell function in men. The effect is therefore plausible but unquantified.
Clinical note: If a patient on insulin or a sulfonylurea takes this herb regularly, ask them to monitor capillary glucose for the first two weeks and watch for hypoglycaemia, particularly around meals.
Bidens pilosa and Bidens biternata as substituted source plants
Bidentis Herba is legitimately derived from more than one species. A 2025 HPLC fingerprint and chemical pattern recognition study of 18 commercial batches treated Bidens bipinnata and Bidens biternata as the two original plants of the drug, found fingerprint similarity to the common pattern ranging only from 0.572 to 0.933, and separated the batches into two chemotypes; peaks 8, 9, 22 and 23 mark this species and peak 7 marks B. biternata. Bidens pilosa, the white-flowered bai hua gui zhen cao, is also sold and studied as gui zhen cao. Marker content varied by 36 to 123 percent between batches.
Clinical note: Do not treat a batch labelled gui zhen cao as equivalent to this species by weight. Ask the supplier which original plant the batch is, and re-titrate the dose when changing supplier or lot.
Lipid-lowering drugs
Two independent metabonomic studies in high-fat-diet rats, one on serum and one on urine, found that oral extract of this herb moved lipid-associated metabolites back toward normal, affecting glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, the TCA cycle, sphingolipid and purine metabolism. These are rodent data with no measurement of statin exposure, so any additive effect is a plausible extension rather than an observed interaction.
Clinical note: No action is usually needed. Recheck a lipid panel after a few months of concurrent use rather than assuming the herb is inert.
Asteraceae-family allergens (ragweed, chrysanthemum, chamomile, feverfew)
This is a Compositae herb used both internally and as a pounded topical application. Cross-sensitisation within the family is well recognised clinically, though no case series specific to this species has been published. This is a contraindication in the atopic rather than a pharmacokinetic interaction.
Clinical note: Ask about ragweed, chrysanthemum or chamomile allergy before prescribing, and patch-test before repeated topical use.
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 5 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
5
3 verified · 2 unverified
Show 5 studies
- Flavonoids-rich extract from Bidens bipinnata L. protects pancreatic β-cells against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis through intrinsic and extrinsic pathways
- Anti-Inflammatory and Barrier-Related Effects of Bidens bipinnata L. Fruit Ethanol Extract in an MC903-Induced AD-like Dermatitis Mouse Model and LPS-Stimulated RAW 264.7 Cells
- Serum metabonomics coupled with HPLC-LTQ/orbitrap MS and multivariate data analysis on the ameliorative effects of Bidens bipinnata L. in hyperlipidemic rats
- Overall metabolic network analysis of urine in hyperlipidemic rats treated with Bidens bipinnata L.
- Exploring the anti-gastric cancer mechanism of action of Bidentis Bipinnatae Herba based on network pharmacology, molecular docking, and cellular experimental validation
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
Flavonoids-rich extract from Bidens bipinnata L. protects pancreatic β-cells against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis through intrinsic and extrinsic pathways
Cell-culture study in INS-1 pancreatic beta-cells, with no animal or human arm. Pre-treatment with the flavonoid-rich extract raised viability after hydrogen peroxide challenge, cut intracellular reactive oxygen species, adjusted Bax and Bcl-2, suppressed JNK, ERK and p38 phosphorylation, downregulated Fas and FasL, and lowered caspase-8, caspase-9 and caspase-3.
Anti-Inflammatory and Barrier-Related Effects of Bidens bipinnata L. Fruit Ethanol Extract in an MC903-Induced AD-like Dermatitis Mouse Model and LPS-Stimulated RAW 264.7 Cells
Note the plant part: this study used an ethanol extract of the fruits (achenes), not the aerial herb that Chinese practice dispenses. Topical application at 60, 180 and 600 micrograms per day reduced calcipotriol-induced dermatitis, erythema and skin weight in mice, improved skin hydration, partly restored filaggrin and loricrin, and lowered TNF-alpha, interferon-gamma, IL-4 and IL-5 in lesional skin. The paired cell work showed inhibition of nitric oxide, prostaglandin E2, iNOS and COX-2 through JNK and p38.
Serum metabonomics coupled with HPLC-LTQ/orbitrap MS and multivariate data analysis on the ameliorative effects of Bidens bipinnata L. in hyperlipidemic rats
Rat study in high-fat-diet hyperlipidaemia. Serum metabolomic profiling showed that oral treatment with the herb shifted disturbed lipid-related metabolites back toward control values. No human data and no dose that can be translated directly to a patient.
Overall metabolic network analysis of urine in hyperlipidemic rats treated with Bidens bipinnata L.
Companion rodent study to the serum work. Four urinary biomarkers separated hyperlipidaemic from control rats, mapping to glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, the TCA cycle, sphingolipid metabolism and purine metabolism, and moved back toward normal after treatment with the herb. Mechanistic and hypothesis-generating only.
Exploring the anti-gastric cancer mechanism of action of Bidentis Bipinnatae Herba based on network pharmacology, molecular docking, and cellular experimental validation
Database-driven target prediction with a small cell-based check. Nine drug-like constituents were mapped to 192 targets, with seven hub genes enriched in the RTK-RAS pathway; in AGS gastric cancer cells luteolin, quercetin and okanin reduced EGFR expression and luteolin and quercetin reduced MAPK1. This is a computational study with cell confirmation, not evidence of clinical benefit.
Historical Texts
Ben Cao Shi Yi (Supplement to Materia Medica), Chen Cangqi
Tang dynasty, 739Zhi Wu Ming Shi Tu Kao, juan 14 (xi cao section), Wu Qijun
Qing dynasty, 1848Quanzhou Ben Cao
20th century (Fujian regional materia medica)References
- Shi GL, Ma Y, Shen FX, Du HW, Liu CM, Wei RX, Li YF, Fan JW, Guan YX. [Quality evaluation of Bidentis Herba derived from different original plants] . Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi (China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica) (2025) [DOI]
- Yang X, Bai ZF, Zhang DW, Zhang Y, Cui H, Zhou HL. Enrichment of flavonoid-rich extract from Bidens bipinnata L. by macroporous resin using response surface methodology, UHPLC-Q-TOF MS/MS-assisted characterization and comprehensive evaluation of its bioactivities by analytical hierarchy process . Biomedical Chromatography (2020) [DOI]
- Zahara K, Bibi Y, Masood S, Nisa S, Qayyum A, Ishaque M, Shahzad K, Ahmed W, Shah ZH, Alsamadany H, Yang SH, Chung G. Using HPLC-DAD and GC-MS Analysis Isolation and Identification of Anticandida Compounds from Gui Zhen Cao Herbs (Genus Bidens): An Important Chinese Medicinal Formulation . Molecules (2021) [DOI]
- Zhang D, Tu J, Ding X, Guan W, Gong L, Qiu X, Huang Z, Su H. Analysis of the chloroplast genome and phylogenetic evolution of Bidens pilosa . BMC Genomics (2023) [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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