Carpesium cernuum
StarCarpesium cernuum
Synonyms: Ponaea cernua, Carpesium cernuum var. queenslandica, Carpesium pubescens, Oiospermum wightianum, Ampherephis wightiana, Carpesium glossophylloides, Carpesium taquetii
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
- Nose & throat
- Colds & fever
- Skin
Cautions & contraindications
- Liver conditions
Western Herbalism Properties
Traditional Uses
In Chinese and Korean traditional medicine Carpesium cernuum (he shi / tian ming jing) is used medicinally: the bitter aerial parts and the seed-like fruits are prepared as decoctions taken to expel intestinal worms and for sore throat, fevers and inflammatory swellings, and applied externally for boils and skin sores in East Asian folk practice (Chinese medicinal plant literature; Korean folk materia medica).
Gallery
Botanical Description
Carpesium cernuum is an erect perennial herb of the daisy family (Asteraceae), widespread across temperate and subtropical Eurasia from Europe through the Caucasus and the Himalaya to China, Korea and Japan, growing in forest margins, grassy slopes, thickets and waste ground. It reaches 50 to 100 centimetres tall, with branched, leafy, softly hairy stems. The alternate leaves are ovate to elliptic, the lower ones stalked and the upper ones smaller and sessile, with toothed or entire margins. The flower heads are distinctive for being solitary and strongly nodding (cernuous) at the branch tips, broad and somewhat bell-shaped, surrounded by leafy bracts; they contain only yellow tubular disc florets, lacking showy ray florets. The fruit is a small ribbed achene bearing a sticky, glandular tip but no pappus. The plant has a slightly aromatic, bitter quality.
Active Constituents
Carabrone
Carabrane-type sesquiterpene lactoneThe best characterised sesquiterpenolide of the whole herb. In SW1990 pancreatic carcinoma cells it inhibited proliferation, migration and invasion, with tandem mass spectrometry and network pharmacology pointing to ferroptosis and Hippo signalling; all of this evidence is cell-based.
Cernuumolides A-J
Highly oxygenated germacranolide sesquiterpene lactonesTen germacranolides first described from this species in 2016, including 11-methoxymethyl and 2,9-hemiacetal-linked subtypes. Cernuumolide H was the most cytotoxic against A549, HCT116, MDA-MB-231 and BEL7404 cells (IC50 0.87-2.02 microM); cernuumolide J is the compound studied as the extract fraction TMJ-105.
Ineupatolide
Sesquiterpene lactoneIsolated from the whole herb and studied as compound T-21. It inhibited PC-3 prostate carcinoma cell proliferation with IC50 falling from 38.5 microM at 12 h to 7.36 microM at 48 h, arresting the cell cycle in G2 and S phase.
Incaspitolide A
Sesquiterpene lactoneA sesquiterpene isolated from this species that reduced PC-3 prostate carcinoma cell viability in a time- and dose-dependent way, arrested cells in S phase and downregulated phosphorylated PI3K and Akt together with xIAP.
2,5-Dimethoxy-p-cymene (thymohydroquinone dimethyl ether)
Thymol-derived monoterpenoidConcentration: 55 percent of the root essential oil and 12 percent of the aerial-part essential oil in cultivated European plants
The dominant volatile of the root. It is the marker that distinguishes the root oil of this species from the alpha-pinene-rich oil of the shoots.
alpha-Pinene
Monoterpene hydrocarbonConcentration: About 35 percent of the aerial-part essential oil in cultivated European plants
Principal volatile of the shoots. The aerial-part oil inhibited Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 at a MIC of 15.6 microlitres per millilitre.
8-Hydroxy-9,10-diisobutyryloxythymol
Thymol-derived monoterpenoidA root monoterpenoid with a narrow window: at 1-10 microM it gave up to 50 percent protection against hydrogen peroxide damage in undifferentiated SH-SY5Y cells, but above 25 microM it was itself cytotoxic (IC50 65.7 microM undifferentiated, 40.9 microM differentiated).
Caffeoylquinic and caffeoylhexaric acids
Hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives (polyphenols)Concentration: Dominant among the 24 hydroxycinnamates detected by HPLC-MSn in hydroalcoholic extract
The polyphenolic backbone of a water or hydroalcoholic decoction, and the likely basis of the antioxidant activity attributed to the herb. These are common Asteraceae phenolics rather than markers specific to this species.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Cytotoxic chemotherapy
The sesquiterpene lactones that dominate this herb are cytotoxic in the low micromolar range in several cancer cell lines (cernuumolide H 0.87-2.02 microM; cernuumolide J 1.79 microM in HEL cells; ineupatolide 7.36 microM at 48 h in PC-3). They act through apoptosis, cell-cycle arrest, reactive oxygen species and, for carabrone, ferroptosis - all overlapping mechanisms with conventional cytotoxics. No pharmacokinetic or co-administration study in humans or animals has been published, so the direction and size of any interaction are unknown.
Clinical note: Do not assume the herb is inert alongside chemotherapy. Until co-administration data exist, keep it out of the regimen of a patient on cytotoxic therapy, or clear its use with the treating oncology team.
Paracetamol (acetaminophen) and other glutathione-dependent drugs
The germacranolides and carabranolides of this herb carry the alpha-methylene-gamma-lactone motif that alkylates thiols; glutathione depletion is a general property of that chemical class rather than something measured for these particular compounds. Paracetamol detoxification depends on hepatic glutathione, so concurrent high-dose use is theoretically additive. No assay of glutathione depletion by Carpesium cernuum constituents has been published, and absence of an assay is not evidence of absence.
Clinical note: Avoid large or prolonged doses of the herb alongside regular paracetamol, and avoid it altogether in a patient with impaired hepatic reserve.
Dosage Calculator
⚖ Dosage Calculator
A weight-based mathematical estimate for Carpesium cernuum. Not a prescription.
Evidence Tier
4 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
4
0 verified · 4 unverified
Show 4 studies
- Identification of Carpesium cernuum extract as a tumor migration inhibitor based on its biological response profiling in breast cancer cells
- TMJ-105, an extract of Carpesium cernuum, induced G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis via the JAK2/STAT3 axis and MAPKs signaling pathway in leukemia HEL cells
- A Carabrane-Type Sesquiterpenolide Carabrone from Carpesium cernuum Inhibits SW1990 Pancreatic Cancer Cells by Inducing Ferroptosis
- Composition of Essential Oils from Roots and Aerial Parts of Carpesium cernuum and Their Antibacterial and Cytotoxic Activities
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
Identification of Carpesium cernuum extract as a tumor migration inhibitor based on its biological response profiling in breast cancer cells
Cell-based work only, with no animal or human arm. RNA sequencing of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells treated with a Carpesium cernuum extract showed the cell adhesion pathway to be the most affected; migration and invasion fell in transwell assays, apparently through TIMP1, MMP9, CD44 and COL4A2, and isolated sesquiterpene lactones reproduced the effect of the crude extract.
TMJ-105, an extract of Carpesium cernuum, induced G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis via the JAK2/STAT3 axis and MAPKs signaling pathway in leukemia HEL cells
A cell-line study of cernuumolide J (TMJ-105) from this species. IC50 was 1.79 microM in HEL and 3.89 microM in K562 leukaemia cells; the compound produced G2/M arrest, reactive oxygen species, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and caspase-9 and caspase-3 dependent apoptosis, with JAK2, STAT3 and Erk phosphorylation falling. No animal or patient data are reported.
A Carabrane-Type Sesquiterpenolide Carabrone from Carpesium cernuum Inhibits SW1990 Pancreatic Cancer Cells by Inducing Ferroptosis
Carabrone inhibited proliferation, migration and invasion of SW1990 pancreatic cancer cells; mass spectrometry and network pharmacology implicated ferroptosis and Hippo signalling. Cell culture only - no in vivo confirmation and no dosing information transferable to patients.
Composition of Essential Oils from Roots and Aerial Parts of Carpesium cernuum and Their Antibacterial and Cytotoxic Activities
GC-MS-FID with NMR support identified 120 volatiles, 115 in the aerial parts and 37 in the roots, from field-cultivated plants. Shoot oil was dominated by alpha-pinene (35 percent) and 2,5-dimethoxy-p-cymene (12 percent), root oil by 2,5-dimethoxy-p-cymene (55 percent), thymyl isobutyrate (9 percent) and thymol methyl ether (8 percent). Shoot oil inhibited Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli at MIC 15.6 microlitres per millilitre.
Historical Texts
Jiu Huang Ben Cao (Famine Relief Herbal)
Ming dynasty, 1406Cao Mu Bian Fang
Qing dynastySichuan Zhong Yao Zhi (Sichuan Materia Medica), 1960 edition
20th century (People's Republic of China)References
- Zhang JP, Wang GW, Tian XH, Yang YX, Liu QX, Chen LP, Li HL, Zhang WD. The genus Carpesium: A review of its ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry and pharmacology . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2015) [DOI]
- Liu QX, Yang YX, Zhang JP, Chen LP, Shen YH, Li HL, Zhang WD. Isolation, Structure Elucidation, and Absolute Configuration of Highly Oxygenated Germacranolides from Carpesium cernuum . Journal of Natural Products (2016) [DOI]
- Malarz J, Jantas D, Jakubowska K, Bugno R, Kiss AK, Stojakowska A. New Terpenoids and Polyphenolic Profile of Carpesium cernuum L. of European Origin . Molecules (2025) [DOI]
- Yan C, Long Q, Zhang YD, Babu G, Krishnapriya MV, Qiu JF, Song JR, Rao Q, Yi P, Sun M, Li YM. Germacranolide sesquiterpenes from Carpesium cernuum and their anti-leukemia activity . Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines (2021) [DOI]
- Shi NN, Hou CC, Liu Y, Li KY, Mi SD, Tong BL, Zhang ML. Chemical constituents of plants from the genus Carpesium . Heterocyclic Communications (2022) [DOI]
- Shi X, Xu W, Wan M, Sun Q, Chen Q, Zhao C, Sun K, Shu Y. Comparative analysis of chloroplast genomes of three medicinal Carpesium species: Genome structures and phylogenetic relationships . PLOS ONE (2022) [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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