Ting Li Zi
StarDescurainia sophia
Synonyms: Arabis sophia, Discurea sophia, Sophia sophia, Sisymbrium sophia, Crucifera sophia, Sophia vulgaris, Phryne sophia, Sisymbrium sophia var. sericea
Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
- Urinary & fluids
Cautions & contraindications
- Heart conditions
- Kidney conditions
- Toxic — professional use only
☯ TCM Properties
Drains the Lungs, reduces Phlegm and calms wheezing; Circulates water and reduces edema
Traditional Chinese Uses
Ting Li Zi (pepperwort or descuraina seed) is a potent downward-directing herb with a forceful action on the Lungs. It is used primarily for respiratory conditions involving excessive fluid or phlegm accumulation — wheezing, breathlessness, and cough with profuse sputum. It also drains fluid retention from the chest and abdomen and promotes urination, making it helpful when fluid has accumulated in body cavities. Because of its forceful action, it is used cautiously and in small amounts.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Gallery
Botanical Description
Descurainia sophia is an annual or biennial herb in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), growing 30-80 cm tall. Stems are erect, branched, and covered in fine grayish hairs giving a mealy appearance. Leaves are 2-3 times pinnately divided into narrow segments, giving a feathery appearance. The small, pale yellow flowers are borne in elongated racemes. Fruits (siliques) are slender, 1-3 cm long, and curve slightly upward. Seeds are tiny, oblong, and orange-brown. The plant has a slightly acrid taste.
Disturbed habitats, roadsides, waste places, cultivated land, and stony hillsides; native to Europe and western Asia, widely naturalized throughout temperate regions worldwide.
Descurainia sophia is a common cosmopolitan weed found throughout temperate regions. It is not threatened in the wild. No conservation concerns.
Active Constituents
Helveticoside
Cardenolide (cardiac glycoside)Concentration: Principal cytotoxic cardenolide of the seed ethanol extract; reported qualitatively rather than as a pharmacopoeial content limit, and varying with species and provenance
Inhibits sodium-potassium ATPase, raising intracellular sodium and, through the sodium-calcium exchanger, intracellular calcium — the same positive-inotropic mechanism as digoxin. Transcriptome work in A549 lung cancer cells identified it as the constituent responsible for the seed extract's biological activity, the extract and the pure compound producing near-identical gene-expression signatures.
Evomonoside
Cardenolide (cardiac glycoside)Concentration: Reported from the seeds of both Descurainia sophia and Lepidium apetalum; amounts differ between the two species and are not standardised
A strophanthidin rhamnoside with sodium-potassium ATPase-inhibiting, cardiotonic activity. It is one of the constituents that makes Ting Li Zi pharmacologically a cardiac-glycoside-bearing drug rather than a simple expectorant.
Erysimoside
Cardenolide (cardiac glycoside)Concentration: Minor cardenolide reported from the seed
A strophanthidin bioside contributing to the cardiotonic and cytotoxic activity of the seed. Like the other cardenolides present, it acts on sodium-potassium ATPase.
Strophanthidin
Cardenolide aglycone (genin)Concentration: Present as the aglycone core of the seed cardenolides and reported free in extracts
The steroidal genin shared by helveticoside, evomonoside and erysimoside. It is directly cardioactive and is the moiety responsible for sodium-potassium ATPase binding.
Quercetin-3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-7-O-beta-D-gentiobioside
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: The assay marker used for Descurainiae Semen (South Ting Li Zi) in Chinese Pharmacopoeia identification and content determination
The dominant flavonoid of the seed and the compound quality control is anchored to. It carries antioxidant activity and has been studied for protection of cardiomyocyte mitochondria against oxidative damage; it has no cardiac-glycoside action.
Sinapine
Phenolic choline ester (hydroxycinnamic acid alkaloid)Concentration: A characteristic phenolic of the seed, isolated as sinapine bisulfate
A choline ester of sinapic acid common to Brassicaceae seeds, with antioxidant activity. It is used alongside the flavonol glycoside as a chemical marker in fingerprinting raw versus stir-fried Ting Li Zi.
Gluconapin (3-butenyl glucosinolate)
GlucosinolateConcentration: Seeds are described as rich in glucosinolates; gluconapin is among the principal ones reported
On crushing and wetting, myrosinase hydrolyses it to the corresponding isothiocyanate, which accounts for the pungency of the seed and part of its antimicrobial and irritant activity on mucosa.
Seed fatty oil (linoleic, oleic, erucic, palmitic and stearic acids)
Fixed oil / fatty acidsConcentration: The seed is oil-rich; supercritical CO2 extraction of the oil gave a GC-MS profile dominated by polyunsaturated C18 and C22 acid esters
The lipophilic fraction carries the antitussive, expectorant and antiasthmatic activity demonstrated in rodent models. It is not the cardioactive fraction.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Digoxin
Ting Li Zi seed contains cardenolides — helveticoside, evomonoside, erysimoside and strophanthidin — which inhibit sodium-potassium ATPase by the same mechanism as digoxin, so their effect is additive on a drug whose toxic and therapeutic ranges nearly overlap. A 2023 review of Chinese-medicine/digoxin interactions attributes to the Ting Li Zi cardiac glycosides in Qiliqiangxin capsule an increase in digoxin plasma concentration and a predisposition to digitalis toxicity, with reported poisoning rates rising with age (15.30 percent under 60, 17.57 percent at 60-80, 27.5 percent over 80). The clinical signal comes from a multi-herb patent medicine, so the contribution of Ting Li Zi alone is not isolated, but the mechanistic basis in the isolated cardenolides is not in doubt.
Clinical note: Do not add Ting Li Zi to digoxin, digitoxin or any other cardiac glycoside without cardiology involvement. If it is unavoidable, check the digoxin level and serum potassium before starting and again within one to two weeks, and warn the patient about nausea, vomiting, visual colour disturbance, confusion and palpitations. Elderly patients and those with renal impairment are at the highest risk.
Loop and thiazide diuretics (furosemide, hydrochlorothiazide)
Potassium competes with cardiac glycosides at the sodium-potassium ATPase binding site, so a fall in serum potassium increases cardenolide binding and arrhythmia risk. Ting Li Zi is prescribed precisely for oedema and pleural effusion, the same indications that attract loop diuretics, so the combination is common in practice, and the herb supplies the glycoside while the diuretic supplies the hypokalaemia.
Clinical note: Check serum potassium and magnesium before combining, and correct any deficit. Prefer a potassium-sparing regimen or supplementation if the herb is continued, and stop the herb if the patient develops arrhythmia, vomiting or visual disturbance.
Methimazole and other antithyroid drugs
The one controlled human trial of this herb added 350 mg/day of Descurainia sophia seed extract to methimazole in newly diagnosed hyperthyroid women and found significantly greater falls in free T3 and free T4 and a greater rise in TSH than methimazole plus placebo. That is an additive antithyroid effect, and it means the herb can push a patient titrated on methimazole alone into biochemical hypothyroidism. The trial was a pilot of only 10 patients, so the size of the effect is not well characterised.
Clinical note: If a patient on carbimazole, methimazole or propylthiouracil starts or stops Ting Li Zi, recheck TSH and free T4 in four to six weeks and be prepared to retitrate the antithyroid dose.
Lepidium apetalum seed (North Ting Li Zi, Lepidii Semen)
Two different Brassicaceae species are dispensed under the single pinyin name Ting Li Zi: Descurainia sophia is South Ting Li Zi (Descurainiae Semen) and Lepidium apetalum is North Ting Li Zi (Lepidii Semen). They are separate drugs with overlapping but non-identical chemistry — both carry helveticoside and evomonoside, but in different amounts, and the Chinese literature holds the South (Descurainia) material to be the harsher and more toxic of the two while the North (Lepidium) material is more mucilaginous and milder. Because the constituent of concern here is a cardiac glycoside, which species was actually dispensed changes the glycoside exposure and therefore the digoxin-interaction risk.
Clinical note: Specify the binomial, not the pinyin, on the prescription, and confirm with the dispensary which species was supplied before combining with any cardiac glycoside. Do not carry a dose established for one species over to the other.
Rorippa indica seed (regional substitute)
Seeds of Rorippa indica have been used locally as Ting Li Zi in parts of Anhui and Jiangxi. They are a different Brassicaceae genus with a different constituent profile and are not the drug the pharmacopoeia describes, so neither the intended cardenolide activity nor the intended safety profile can be assumed. The substitution is detectable macroscopically: Rorippa seeds are spherical and yellowish-brown, whereas authentic Ting Li Zi is flat-oval.
Clinical note: Buy from suppliers who authenticate to species. Inspect the material: round yellowish-brown seed is not Descurainia sophia.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 3–10 g | daily | — | adult | 中国药典 2020年版 一部 【葶苈子】【用法与用量】3～10g，包煎。 — Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020, Vol. I. Wrap in cloth when decocting (bao jian) |
Dui Yao — Herb Pairs
The classical two-herb combinations this herb appears in, each with an action neither herb has alone.
Drains the lungs of phlegm and fluids to calm wheezing, while the jujube protects the spleen and moderates the harshness of the purge.
Core pair of a classical formula — Ting Li Da Zao Xie Fei Tang, Jin Gui Yao Lue (Zhang Zhongjing)
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
1
0 verified · 1 unverified
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
1
0 verified · 1 unverified
In vitro / animal
3
1 verified · 2 unverified
Show 3 studies
- Extractions of Oil from Descurainia sophia Seed Using Supercritical CO2, Chemical Compositions by GC-MS and Evaluation of the Anti-Tussive, Expectorant and Anti-Asthmatic Activities
- Helveticoside is a biologically active component of the seed extract of Descurainia sophia and induces reciprocal gene regulation in A549 human lung cancer cells
- Cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory constituents from the seeds of Descurainia sophia
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
Evaluation of the therapeutic effect of Descurainia sophia (L.) Webb ex Prantl seed extract on hyperthyroidism: A double-blind placebo-controlled pilot clinical trial
A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial in 10 newly diagnosed hyperthyroid women, all on methimazole, randomised to Descurainia sophia seed extract 350 mg/day or placebo for 60 days. The extract arm showed significantly reduced free T3 and free T4, increased TSH, and improvement in nervousness, irritability, insomnia, eye complaints, dyspnoea, heat intolerance and tremor compared with placebo. This is the only controlled human trial of the herb identified for this indication, and its size means it is hypothesis-generating rather than practice-changing.
Effect of Descurainia sophia (L.) Webb ex Prantl on Adult Functional Constipation: A Prospective Pilot Study
An uncontrolled prospective pilot study of Descurainia sophia seed in adults with functional constipation, reporting improvement in stool frequency and consistency. There is no comparator arm, so the result cannot be separated from natural history or placebo; it is included as the extent of the human evidence, not as support for the indication.
Extractions of Oil from Descurainia sophia Seed Using Supercritical CO2, Chemical Compositions by GC-MS and Evaluation of the Anti-Tussive, Expectorant and Anti-Asthmatic Activities
Supercritical CO2 extraction of Descurainia sophia seed oil, GC-MS characterisation of the extract, and rodent testing of the three activities the herb is prescribed for. The oil lengthened the latent period of ammonia-induced cough and reduced cough frequency in mice, increased tracheal phenol-red secretion, and prolonged pre-convulsive time in histamine/acetylcholine-challenged guinea pigs. It supports the antitussive and expectorant use, and it locates that activity in the fatty oil rather than the cardenolide fraction.
Helveticoside is a biologically active component of the seed extract of Descurainia sophia and induces reciprocal gene regulation in A549 human lung cancer cells
Transcriptome comparison of the Descurainia sophia seed ethanol extract with purified helveticoside in A549 human lung adenocarcinoma cells. The extract and the isolated cardiac glycoside produced closely matching gene-expression signatures, identifying helveticoside as the constituent that carries the extract's biological activity. This is the clearest evidence that the herb's activity is glycoside-driven, and by implication that its risk is too.
Cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory constituents from the seeds of Descurainia sophia
Bioassay-guided isolation from Descurainia sophia seed, recovering cardenolide glycosides as the cytotoxic principles and other constituents with anti-inflammatory activity in cell assays. A single preclinical isolation study; it establishes what is in the seed, not what it does in patients.
Historical Texts
Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Divine Husbandman's Classic of the Materia Medica)
Han dynasty, compiled c. 200 CEJin Gui Yao Lue (Essentials from the Golden Cabinet), Zhang Zhongjing
Eastern Han, c. 200-220 CEBen Cao Yan Yi (Augmented Materia Medica), Kou Zongshi
Northern Song, 1116References
- Xu, Zhenpeng; Zhang, Sen; Zhang, Chenhuan; Xing, Rongxue; Xing, Haoran; Han, Qingtong; Yin, Yiming; Xu, Lintao; Wang, Xiaoning; Shen, Tao. Descurainia sophia L. and Lepidium apetalum Willd.: A comprehensive review of botany, ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology, actual and potential applications . Fitoterapia (2025) [DOI]
- Hsieh, Po-Chun; Kuo, Chan-Yen; Lee, Yen-Hsien; Wu, Yao-Kuang; Yang, Mei-Chen; Tzeng, I-Shiang; Lan, Chou-Chin. Therapeutic effects and mechanisms of actions of Descurainia sophia . International Journal of Medical Sciences (2020) [DOI]
- Zhuang, Wei; He, Tao; Jia, Bei-Bei; Wang, Zhi-Zhou; Zhang, Lan; Dong, Xian-Zhe; Xi, Sheng-Yan. Interaction between Chinese medicine and digoxin: Clinical and research update . Frontiers in Pharmacology (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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